LINCOLN 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


L 


the  Class  of  1901 

founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 
HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


Reproduced  from  photograph  furnished  the  author  b>  Mr.  William  O.  Stoddard, 
one  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  private  secretaries,  especially  for  this  book.  It  is  his  opinion  that 
it  is  the  most  natural  photograph  ever  taken  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  It  was  taken  in  1S62. 


Reproduced  from  photograph  furnished  the  author  by  Mr.  William  O.  Stoddard, 
one  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  private  secretaries,  especially  for  this  book.  Mrs.  Lincoln  pre- 
sented the  photograph  to  Mr.  Stoddard.  She  regarded  it  the  best  that  she  ever  had 
taken. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 
THE  CHRISTIAN 


BY 

WILLIAM  J.  JOHNSON 


THE   ABINGDON   PRESS 
NEW  YORK  CINCINNATI 


Copyright,  1019,  by 
WILLIAM  J.  JOHNSON 


First  Edition  Printed  August,  1913 

Reprinted  October,  1913;  February,  1914 

March,  1916;  May,  1920 


p 

COV 


TO 

MY  WIFE 
ADVISER,  HELPER,  CRITIC 

THIS  BOOK  IS 
AFFECTIONATELY  DEDICATED 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

ILLUSTRATIONS 6 

WHY,  The  Author 7 

INTRODUCTION,  James  F.  Rusling 11 

FOREWORD,  Wm.  Henry  Roberts 13 

A  TESTIMONY,  William  0.  Stoddard 16 

EARLY  TRAINING 21 

ESSAY  ON  CHRISTIANITY 31 

RELIGIOUS  AWAKENING 43 

RELIANCE  UPON  GOD 70 

His  GREAT  SORROW 80 

PRELIMINARY  PROCLAMATION 94 

A  PRAYING  PRESIDENT 112 

SECOND  PROCLAMATION  FOR  THANKSGIVING 123 

PISGAH  AND  CALVARY 136 

LINCOLN  AND  THE  BIBLE 148 

LINCOLN  AND  CHURCH  MEMBERSHIP 167 

TESTIMONY  OF  FRIENDS 183 

A  TRANSFIGURED  LIFE 190 

SOURCES  OF  INFORMATION 195 

DOCTRINAL  BELIEFS  AND  RELIGIOUS  HABITS 208 

NAMES  OF  THE  DEITY 215 

INDEX.,  ..218 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  . . 


V  FRONTISPIECES 
MRS.  LINCOLN ) 

FACING  PAGE 

FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH,  SPRINGFIELD,  ILLI- 
NOIS      41 

REV.  JAMES  SMITH,  D.D 50 

A  PRAYING  PRESIDENT — FACSIMILE 112 

LINCOLN'S  MOTHER'S  BIBLE 157 

NEW  YORK  AVENUE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH,  WASH- 
INGTON, D.  C j 167 

REV.  PHINEAS  D.  GURLEY,  D.D 171 

PRESIDENT  LINCOLN'S  LAST  PHOTOGRAPH..  .  182 


The  crowning  glory  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
was  the  grandeur  of  his  Christian  character. 
— Rev.  William  Bishop,  D.D. 


WHY 

"LINCOLN,  the  Lawyer";  "Lincoln,  the 
Citizen";  "Lincoln,  the  Story-Teller";  "Lin- 
coln, the  Statesman";  "Lincoln,  the  Friend 
of  Man,"  and  other  phases  of  this  remark- 
able character,  have  received  special  treat- 
ment at  the  hands  of  various  students 
and  writers.  While  some  attention  has 
been  given  to  the  religious  side,  it  has 
been  comparatively  meager,  and  has  not 
received  the  prominence  that  it  deserves. 

Sixteen  years  ago,  as  Lincoln's  Birthday 
drew  near,  I  was  astonished  to  hear  and 
read  so  much  that  he  was  an  infidel,  atheist, 
deist,  Universalist,  Unitarian,  Spiritualist, 
etc.  Although  I  was  a  great  admirer  of 
him  and  had  studied  his  life,  having  been 
born  and  brought  up  not  very  far  from 
his  Indiana  home,  up  to  that  time  my 
attention  had  not  been  directed  to  his 
religious  beliefs.  It  seemed  to  be  taken 
for  granted  that  he  was  a  Christian,  but 
I  was  not  able  to  meet  the  statements 
of  those  who  declared  that  he  was  not. 

7 


8  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Here  was  one  of  the  world's  greatest 
characters:  could  such  a  character  be  the 
product  of  unbelief?  Here  was  a  definite 
effect:  what  cause  could  produce  it?  What 
was  the  source  and  strength  of  the  mar- 
velous personality  and  character  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln? 

These  questions  led  to  a  careful  study 
of  his  life,  writings,  and  speeches,  to  find 
what  Lincoln  had  said  that  would  reveal, 
if  possible,  his  own  mind  and  heart.  The 
result  of  the  first  brief  study  was  given 
in  an  address  on  Lincoln's  Birthday.  It 
was  in  a  community  saturated  with  unbe- 
lief in  matters  of  religion.  The  people 
seemed  amazed,  yet  pleased,  that  there  was 
so  much  evidence  of  his  Christian  belief. 

During  all  these  years  I  have  been  on 
the  alert  for  anything  I  could  find  in 
public  addresses,  papers,  magazines,  and 
books  bearing  upon  the  subject.  Almost 
every  year  the  address  has  been  given 
in  part  on  Lincoln's  Birthday.  Always  the 
people  have  urged  that  it  be  put  in  book 
form,  and  so  made  permanently  accessible 
to  the  public. 

In  the  beginning,  not  expecting  to  pub- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  9 

lish  it,  many  notes  were  made  without 
preserving  the  source.  Consequently,  there 
may  be  quotations  found  in  the  book 
without  being  so  indicated.  For  this  I 
humbly  beg  the  pardon  of  the  authors, 
whoever  they  may  be,  assuring  them  that 
my  only  purpose  has  been  to  let  their 
more  apt  expression  of  the  thought  con- 
tinue on  its  mission  of  good.  "The  words 
of  Lincoln  and  the  incidents  in  his  life 
are  the  property  of  the  world — belong  to 
no  person,  nor  covered  by  any  copyright." 

In  the  hope  that  others  may  be  interested 
in  studying  the  religious  side  of  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's life,  references  to  the  sources  of 
information  are  given  in  the  back  of  the 
book.  Everything  is  believed  to  be  au- 
thentic. The  greater  part  is  Lincoln's 
own  recorded  words.  While  it  must  be 
admitted  that  in  the  "reminiscences  and 
recollections"  of  his  friends  the  memory  is 
not  always  accurate,  yet  everything  is  in 
harmony  with  other  things  which  are 
accepted  by  all  as  authentic. 

The  chronological  order  has  been  fol- 
lowed, so  as  to  show  his  religious  develop- 
ment. To  aid  the  reader,  the  year  associated 


10  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

with  the  matter  presented  is  given  at  the 
top  of  the  page.  There  are  some  things, 
however,  the  date  of  which  cannot  be 
determined,  and  therefore  no  year  is  given. 
Many  of  the  longer  quotations  from  Lincoln 
appear  in  smaller  type,  without  quotation 
marks. 

Here  ends  a  labor  of  love.  The  aim 
has  been  to  let  Mr.  Lincoln  speak  for 
himself,  that  the  people,  hearing  his  mes- 
sage, may  learn  to  know  the  real  Lincoln. 

Since  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era, 
among  them  that  are  born  of  women  there 
hath  not  risen  a  greater  than  Abraham 
Lincoln. 


Merriam  Park, 
Saint  Paul,  Minnesota, 
April  25,  1913. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  11 


INTRODUCTION 

IN  writing  a  book  on  Abraham  Lincoln, 
the  Christian,  the  Rev.  William  J.  Johnson 
has  set  himself  a  notable  task,  and  done 
something  well  worth  while.  And  he  has 
not  slighted  the  subject,  but  has  studied 
it  in  its  entirety,  and  produced  a  book 
that  will  delight  all  friends  of  Mr.  Lincoln, 
and  ought  to  have  a  wide  circulation. 
He  shows  Mr.  Lincoln  to  have  been  not 
an  atheist,  nor  an  infidel,  nor  an  agnostic 
even,  but  a  profoundly  religious  man — a 
God-fearing,  a  God-praying,  and  a  God- 
trusting  man — believing  implicitly  in  a 
Supreme  Power  in  this  universe  "that 
makes  for  righteousness,"  and  relying  con- 
fidently on  His  overruling  providence  and 
divine  guidance.  If  not  our  "first  Amer- 
ican," clearly  Mr.  Lincoln  was  one  of  our 
first — a  great  and  typical  American,  not 
inferior  even  to  George  Washington  on 
many  lines.  Or,  as  Lowell  well  said,  "he 
was  one  of  Plutarch's  men" — one  of  the 
kind  of  heroes  and  great  men  old  Plutarch 


12  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

loved  to  gossip  about,  and  his  name  will 
remain  "a  flag  among  men,"  around  which 
men  will  rally  and  fight  for  God  and 
humanity,  until  the  last  syllable  of  re- 
corded time. 

His  good  sword  is  rust, 

His  bones  are  dust, 

His  soul  is  with  the  saints,  I  trust. 

I  count  it  among  the  greatest  of  my 
honors  to  have  walked  by  his  side,  and 
shaken  hands  with  him,  and  conversed 
with  him  face  to  face;  and  may  God  bless 
his  memory  forever! 

JAMES  F.  RUSLING. 
Trenton,  New  Jersey, 
February  17,  1910. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  13 


FOREWORD 

IT  was  my  privilege  as  a  young  man 
to  have  known  Abraham  Lincoln.  Enter- 
ing the  service  of  the  United  States  govern- 
ment in  the  fall  of  1863,  the  first  Sabbath 
of  my  sojourn  in  Washington  City  I  went 
to  the  New  York  Avenue  Presbyterian 
Church.  When  the  time  for  the  long 
prayer  came,  according  to  immemorial  usage 
in  many  Presbyterian  congregations,  a 
number  of  the  men  stood  up  for  prayer, 
and  among  those  upright  figures  I  noticed 
in  particular  that  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States.  As  a  member  of  the  New 
York  Avenue  Church  I  was  seated  not 
far  from  Mr.  Lincoln  at  Sunday  services 
for  a  year  and  a  half,  and  his  attitude  was 
always  that  of  an  earnest  and  devout  wor- 
shiper. He  was  also  an  attendant  at  the 
weekly  meeting,  though  for  a  considerable 
period  taking  part  in  the  services  privately. 
It  having  become  known  that  he  was  an 
attendant  at  the  prayer  meeting,  many 
persons  would  gather  in  or  near  the  church 


14  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

at  the  close  of  the  service  in  order  to  have 
access  to  him  for  various  purposes.  De- 
siring to  put  an  end  to  these  unwelcome 
interruptions,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Phineas  D. 
Gurley,»the  pastor  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  arranged 
to  have  the  President  sit  in  the  pastor's 
room,  the  door  of  which  opened  upon  the 
lecture  room,  and  there  Mr.  Lincoln  would 
take  a  silent  part  in  the  service.  He  in- 
formed his  pastor  on  several  occasions  that 
he  had  received  great  comfort  from  the 
meetings,  and  for  the  reason  that  they  had 
been  characterized  more  by  prayer  than 
by  the  making  of  addresses. 

Dr.  Gurley  bore  repeated  testimony  to 
myself  and  to  other  members  of  the  church 
of  the  deeply  religious  character  of  Mr. 
Lincoln,  and  it  is  with  pleasure  that  I 
add  this  brief  testimony  from  my  own 
experience  and  observation  to  the  far  more 
extended  tributes  to  Mr.  Lincoln  as  a 
Christian  given  in  this  work,  reverently 
prepared  by  my  colaborer  in  the  kingdom 
of  God,  the  Rev.  William  J.  Johnson,  D.D. 

It  will  be  fifty  years  next  fall  since  I 
came  into  direct  touch  with  the  man,  who 
in  the  providence  of  God  was  the  liberator 


THE  CHRISTIAN  15 

of  a  race,  and  I  shall  always  hold  in  sweet 
and  blessed  memory  my  first  sight  of  him, 
as  a  devout  worshiper  standing  for  prayer 
in  the  sanctuary  of  the  Most  High. 

WM.  HENRY  ROBERTS, 

Stated  Clerk  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  in  the  U.  S.  A.,  Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania,  November  26,  1912. 


16  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


A  TESTIMONY  BY  MR.  LINCOLN'S 
PRIVATE  SECRETARY 

No  man  can  lead  two  lives  or  spiritually 
serve  two  masters,  although,  by  special 
effort  or  otherwise,  he  may  seem  to  do  so. 
Abraham  Lincoln  lived  but  one  life.  It  was 
even  singularly  open,  unconcealed,  easily  to 
be  read  and  understood.  The  character- 
istics of  that  life,  all  its  wonderful  story, 
from  birth  to  death,  have  been  recorded, 
searched,  printed,  to  the  last  degree  of  even 
scientific  analysis.  Its  every  freckle  or 
wrinkle  has  been  noted,  whether  for  good 
or  evil.  Therefore  it  is  now  too  late  for 
any  new  or  materially  modified  presenta- 
tion of  the  man  whom  we  all  know  so  well. 

My  own  study  of  him  began  in  Illinois, 
in  the  year  1858,  before  he  had  attained 
his  national  fame  or  had  been  thought  of 
as  a  probable  President  of  the  United 
States.  That  study  at  last  led  me  to  write 
and  to  print  in  my  own  journal,  in  his 
district,  the  first  editorial  nomination  of 
him  as  the  candidate  of  the  Republican 


THE  CHRISTIAN  17 

party.  Not  long  after  his  election  I  was 
ordered  by  him  to  Washington,  to  wait 
there  for  his  further  instructions  and  for 
his  arrival.  I  did  so,  receiving  an  appoint- 
ment on  his  official  staff.  After  a  three 
months'  interval  of  army  service,  by  his 
express  permission,  I  was  ordered  to  the 
White  House  and  placed  in  sole  charge  of 
his  correspondence,  with  such  other  duties 
as  came  to  me,  from  time  to  time.  Here  I 
remained  until  the  Autumn  of  1864,  when 
I  was  promoted  to  what  was  then  believed 
to  be  a  higher  appointment.  A  conscious 
as  well  as  unconscious  study  of  Mr.  Lincoln 
went  on  during  all  those  years,  seeing  him 
and  talking  with  him  under  every  variety 
of  circumstance. 

There  was  in  him  an  intense,  absorbing, 
all-pervading  love  of  truth,  of  righteous- 
ness, of  justice,  of  his  fellow  men,  with  a 
continuously  reverent  acknowledgment  of 
God  and  of  a  strong  sense  of  divine  help 
and  leading,  which  cannot  by  any  rational 
examiner  be  separated  from  a  very  highly 
developed  Christian  attainment. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  years  in  the  White  House 
were  years  of  almost  ceaseless  heart  pain, 


18  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

whereof  he  at  times  said  that  he  was  slowly 
dying.  To  him  came  thus  the  fulfillment 
of  the  divine  annunciation,  "Through  much 
tribulation  do  ye  enter  the  kingdom." 

I  shall  not  in  this  place  present  any 
small  and  impertinent  anecdote  of  personal 
contact  or  conversation,  not  any  mere 
glittering  bubble  upon  a  stream  which  had 
swollen  into  a  great  flood.  The  flowing 
of  that  spiritual  tide  must  be  watched  as 
to  its  continuous  power  and  direction,  as 
it  widened  and  deepened  until  it  passed  out 
and  beyond  all  earthly  observation. 

It  might  be  well  for  those  who  are  at 
all  disposed  to  criticize  or  distract,  to  in- 
quire, thoughtfully,  how  far  the  recorded 
Christian  testimony  of  the  great  President 
does,  or  does  not,  fulfill  the  word  that  is 
final:  "On  these  two  commandments,  the 
love  of  God  and  the  love  of  the  neighbor, 
depend  all  the  Law  and  the  Prophets." 
I  have  seen  him,  more  than  once,  with  a 
great  light  on  his  face,  a  shining  from 
within  that  awed  and  startled  me.  Right 
there  is  an  unspeakable  solemnity  of  thought 
and  faith.  I  will  transfer  its  consideration 
to  those  who  are  able  to  understand,  from 


THE  CHRISTIAN  19 

their  own  inner  life,  a  spiritual  lamp  for 
that  illumination.  For  all  time  to  come, 
and  especially  for  all  generations  of  Amer- 
icans, the  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln  presents 
a  deep  and  priceless  teaching  concerning 
the  reality  of  that  inner  birth,  growth, 
development,  whose  richest  treasures  are, 
nevertheless,  hidden  from  all  eyes  but 
those  of  God  himself. 

WILLIAM  O.  STODDABD. 
Madison,  New  Jersey, 
March  7,  1913. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  THE 
CHRISTIAN 

EARLY  TRAINING 

MR.  LINCOLN'S  parents  were  Christians, 
first  affiliated  with  the  Free-Will  Baptist 
Church  in  Kentucky,  and  afterward  with 
the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Indiana.1  Their 
home  was  a  home  of  prayer,  the  Bible 
was  read  morning  and  evening,  and  his 
father  always  returned  thanks  at  the  table. 
On  one  occasion  the  only  thing  they  had 
for  dinner  was  roasted  potatoes.  After 
the  father  had  returned  thanks  for  "these 
blessings,"  young  Abe  looked  up  and  said, 
"Dad,  I  call  these  mighty  poor  blessings."2 

His  mother  seems  to  have  been  a  woman 
of  superior  character  for  her  time  and  sur- 
roundings. She  had  attended  a  school  in 
Virginia,  and  was  intellectually  above  those 
around  her.  She  was  especially  devoted  in 
her  Christian  life,  striving  to  live  up  to 
the  teachings  of  the  Bible,  which  was  her 
daily  companion,  and  sought  to  follow  the 
scriptural  injunction,  "Train  up  a  child  in 

21 


22  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN       [1809-18 

the  way  he  should  go:  and  when  he  is  old, 
he  will  not  depart  from  it."  On  Sunday 
she  would  read  to  her  children  those  Bible 
stories  so  interesting  to  all  children,  and 
pray  with  them.3  She  impressed  her  own 
ideals  and  convictions  of  righteousness  in- 
delibly on  her  son,  and  her  earnest  prayers 
made  a  lifelong  impression  upon  his  young 
mind;  for  he  himself  said,  after  he  became 
President,  speaking  of  his  mother:  "I 
remember  her  prayers,  and  they  have  al- 
ways followed  me.  They  have  clung  to 
me  all  my  life."4 

The  opportunities  for  attending  public 
worship  were  very  meager.  A  log  meeting- 
house had  been  erected  about  three  miles 
from  the  Lincoln  home  in  Kentucky,  where 
traveling  preachers  occasionally  held  serv- 
ice. Little  Abe  attended  these  "meetings" 
with  his  parents.  When  only  five  years 
old  he  was  so  impressed  with  the  preach- 
ing, or,  perhaps,  the  manner  of  the  preach- 
ing, that  on  returning  home  he  would  get 
upon  a  stool  or  block  of  wood  and  preach 
to  the  other  children  or  the  rest  of  the 
family,  shouting  and  pounding  the  Bible 
with  his  little  fist  just  like  the  preacher.5 


1818]  THE  CHRISTIAN  23 

MOTHER'S  DEATH 

When  Abe  was  nine  years  old  his  mother 
died,  her  death  occurring  on  October  5, 
1818.  A  friend  present  at  the  time  says: 
"The  mother  knew  she  was  going  to  die, 
and  called  her  children  [Abe  and  Sarah] 
to  her  bedside.  She  was  very  weak,  and 
the  children  leaned  over  while  she  gave 
her  last  message.  Placing  her  feeble  hand 
on  little  Abe's  head,  she  told  him  to  be 
kind  and  good  to  his  father  and  sister; 
to  both  she  said,  'Be  good  to  one  another,' 
expressing  a  hope  that  they  might  live  as 
they  had  been  taught  by  her,  to  love  their 
kindred  and  worship  God."6 

Little  did  this  mother,  "dying  amid  the 
miserable  surroundings  of  a  home  in  the 
wilderness,"  dream  that  her  name,  Nancy 
Hanks  Lincoln,  was  to  become  immortal 
through  the  ragged,  barefoot,  hapless  lad 
who  gazed  with  wondering  eyes  upon  this 
strange  transition.  Earth's  noblest  crown 
has  been  wreathed  about  her  memory,  and 
never  more  beautifully  told  than  in  these 
words:  "Though  of  lowly  birth,  the  victim 
of  poverty  and  hard  usage,  she  takes  a 
place  in  history  as  the  mother  of  a  son 


24  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1819 

who  liberated  a  race  of  men.  At  her  side 
stands  another  mother,  whose  Son  per- 
formed a  similar  service  for  all  mankind 
eighteen  hundred  years  before."7 

There  was  no  one  to  hold  religious 
services  when  Mrs.  Lincoln  died,  and  this 
added  greatly  to  the  little  boy's  grief.  It 
weighed  so  heavily  upon  his  young  heart 
that,  eight  or  nine  months  afterward,  hav- 
ing learned  to  write,  his  first  letter  was  to 
a  Baptist  itinerant  preacher  whom  he  had 
heard  in  Kentucky,  the  Rev.  David  Elkin, 
asking  him  to  preach  a  funeral  sermon  at 
his  mother's  grave.  The  preacher  agreed 
to  come,  an  appointment  was  made,  and 
the  settlers  from  many  miles  around  gath- 
ered in  the  woods  on  the  hill  to  hear  the 
funeral  sermon  at  Nancy  Lincoln's  grave.8 

The  effect  of  this  mother's  prayers, 
teachings,  and  dying  benediction  may  best 
be  told  by  her  own  son,  after  he  became 
known  and  loved  the  wide  world  over: 
"All  that  I  am,  all  that  I  hope  to  be,  I 
owe  to  my  angel  mother — blessings  on  her 
memory."9  Lincoln  never  forgot  this  Chris- 
tian mother's  life  and  teachings.  She  in- 
spired him  with  pure  and  noble  motives. 


1819]  THE  CHRISTIAN  25 

Her  example  was  one  of  sweetness  and 
patience.  He  never  forgot  her  motherly 
devotion  and  tenderness  and  care.  "His 
character  was  planted  in  this  Christian 
mother's  life.  Its  roots  were  fed  by  this 
Christian  mother's  love;  and  those  that 
have  wondered  at  the  truthfulness  and 
earnestness  of  his  mature  character  have 
only  to  remember  that  the  tree  was  true 
to  the  soil  from  which  it  sprang."10  "A 
great  man,"  says  John  G.  Holland,  "never 
drew  his  infant  life  from  a  purer  or  more 
womanly  bosom  than  her  own." 

BOYHOOD 

About  a  year  after  his  mother's  death 
young  Abe  was  blessed  with  a  stepmother, 
whom  his  father  had  brought  from  Ken- 
tucky. She  was  even  a  stronger  character 
than  the  first  Mrs.  Lincoln,  and  continued 
the  good  training  and  wise  teaching  so 
well  begun  by  her  predecessor.  She  was 
very  fond  of  Abe,  and  he  learned  to  love 
her  as  his  own  mother.  She  bears  testimony 
to  his  goodness  in  these  words,  spoken 
after  his  death:  "Abe  was  a  good  boy,  and 
I  can  say  what  scarcely  one  woman — a 


26  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

mother — in  a  thousand  can  say:  Abe  never 
gave  me  a  cross  word  or  look,  and  never 
refused  in  fact  or  appearance  to  do  any- 
thing I  requested  of  him.  I  never  gave 
him  a  cross  word  in  all  my  life.  His  mind 
and  mine — what  little  I  had — seemed  to 
run  together.  He  was  a  dutiful  son  to 
me  always.  I  think  he  loved  me  truly. 
I  had  a  son,  John,  who  was  raised  with 
Abe.  Both  were  good  boys,  but  I  must 
say,  both  now  being  dead,  that  Abe  was 
the  best  boy  I  ever  saw,  or  expect  to  see."" 
His  cousin,  Dennis  Hanks,  also  bears  sim- 
ilar testimony  (June  13,  1865):  "Abe  was 
a  good  boy — an  affectionate  one — a  boy 
who  loved  his  parents  and  was  obedient 
to  their  every  wish."12 

The  books  to  which  young  Lincoln  had 
access  were  few,  but  they  were  the  best. 
The  first  was  the  Bible.  He  kept  it  within 
easy  reach,  and  read  it  over  and  over 
again.  He  could  repeat  much  of  it  from 
memory.  His  mind  was  saturated  with  its 
precepts  and  his  heart  was  filled  with  its 
truths.  The  second  book  which  he  read 
was  Bunyan's  Pilgrim's  Progress,  which  his 
father  borrowed  for  him.  The  third,  pre- 


1823]  THE  CHRISTIAN  27 

sented  to  him  by  a  Mrs.  Bruner,  was 
jEsop's  Fables,  which  he  committed  to 
memory.13  Could  three  better  books  be 
chosen  for  a  boy  to-day  from  the  libraries 
of  the  world?  "These  three  books  did 
much  to  perfect  that  which  his  mother's 
teachings  had  begun,  and  to  form  a  char- 
acter which,  for  quaint  simplicity,  earnest- 
ness, truthfulness,  and  purity,  has  never 
been  surpassed  among  the  historic  per- 
sonages of  the  world."14 

YOUTH 

But  little  is  preserved  of  Lincoln's  youth 
to  show  his  religious  bent.  With  the  free- 
and-easy  life  of  those  pioneer  days,  it  is 
doubtful  if  anyone  with  Lincoln's  buoyant 
nature  would  manifest  any  special  religious 
interest.  A  few  things  indicate  the  better 
thought  of  his  youthful  mind  and  the 
deeper  emotion  of  his  youthful  heart. 

In  his  fourteenth  year,  while  at  school, 
he  wrote  on  the  flyleaf  of  his  schoolbook: 

Abraham  Lincoln 
his  hand  and  pen — 
he  will  be  good  but 
god  knows  When. 


28  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN       [1823-30 

At  another  time  he  wrote  in  a  school- 
mate's (Joseph  C.  Richardson)  copybook: 

Good  boys  who  to  their  books  apply 
Will  all  be  great  men  by  and  by.15 

These  show  two  things:  First,  that  the 
youthful  boy  had  faith  in  his  mother's 
God;  and,  second,  that  he  believed  his 
mother's  teachings — that  goodness  is  the 
first  thing  to  be  sought  for.  As  our  Master 
has  taught:  "Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom 
of  God,  and  his  righteousness;  and  all  these 
things  shall  be  added  unto  you." 

The  sacred  songs  that  he  most  loved 
indicate  something  of  his  religious  nature. 
They  were,  "Am  I  a  Soldier  of  the  Cross?" 
"How  Tedious  and  Tasteless  the  Hours," 
"There  is  a  Fountain  Filled  with  Blood," 
and  "Alas,  and  Did  My  Saviour  Bleed?"18 
A  soul  that  can  appreciate  these  hymns 
must  recognize,  first,  that  without  the 
shedding  of  blood  there  is  no  remission  of 
sin;  second,  that  Jesus  Christ  died  upon 
the  cross  for  the  salvation  of  the  world; 
third,  that  life  without  the  Saviour  is  an 
empty  bubble;  and,  fourth,  that  loyal  devo- 
tion to  the  Christ  and  His  cause  is  man's 


1831]  THE  CHRISTIAN  29 

highest  calling,  and  the  test  of  true  char- 
acter. 

SUPERSTITION 

The  claim  that  there  was  more  or  less 
of  superstition  in  his  nature,  and  that  he 
was  greatly  affected  by  his  dreams,  is  not 
to  be  disputed.  Many  devout  Christians 
to-day  are  equally  superstitious,  and,  also, 
are  greatly  affected  by  their  dreams.  Lin- 
coln grew  in  an  atmosphere  saturated  with 
all  kinds  of  superstitious  beliefs.  It  is  not 
strange  that  some  of  it  should  cling  to 
him  all  his  life,  just  as  it  was  with  Garfield, 
Blaine,  and  others. 

In  1831,  then  a  young  man  of  twenty- 
two,  Lincoln  made  his  second  trip  to  New 
Orleans.  It  was  then  that  he  visited  a 
Voodoo  fortune  teller,17  that  is  so  important 
in  the  eyes  of  certain  people.  This,  doubt- 
less, was  out  of  mere  curiosity,  for  it  was 
his  second  visit  to  a  city.  This  no  more 
indicates  a  belief  in  "spiritualism"  than 
does  the  fact  that  a  few  days  before  he 
started  on  this  trip  he  attended  an  ex- 
hibition given  by  a  traveling  juggler,  and 
allowed  the  magician  to  cook  eggs  in  his 
low-crowned,  broad-rimmed  hat.18 


30  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1831 

FIRST  SIGHT  OF  SLAVERY 
Of  deeper  significance  than  his  visit  to 
a  fortune  teller  was  his  first  sight  of  the 
public  sale  of  slaves  during  his  stay  in 
New  Orleans.  He  saw  "Negroes  in  chains, 
whipped  and  scourged."  Rambling  about 
the  city  one  morning  with  his  companions, 
they  came  upon  a  slave  auction.  Men, 
women,  and  children  were  treated  as  brutes, 
and  sold  to  the  highest  bidder.  The  whole 
scene  was  revolting  to  Lincoln,  and  his 
soul  was  stirred  to  profoundest  depths. 
With  a  deep  feeling  of  "unconquerable 
hate"  for  an  institution  that  made  such 
inhumanity  possible,  turning  away  from 
the  awful  sight,  he  said  to  his  companions, 
"Boys,  by  the  Eternal  God,  if  ever  I  get 
a  chance  to  hit  that  thing  [slavery],  I'll 
hit  it  hard."19  Does  this  not  indicate  that 
deep  in  his  nature,  beneath  the  rough  and 
wild  exterior  life  of  the  young  pioneer, 
there  was  an  abiding  belief  and  trust  in 
the  power  and  guidance  of  God? 


1831]  THE  CHRISTIAN  31 


ESSAY  ON  CHRISTIANITY 

In  July,  1831,  Mr.  Lincoln,  being  twenty- 
two  years  of  age,  went  to  New  Salem,  Il- 
linois, a  rude  hamlet  started  two  years 
before,  to  begin  life  for  himself.  He  had 
always  lived  in  log  houses  in  the  woods. 
He  had  never  been  inside  of  a  college, and  had 
attended  school  hardly  more  than  twelve 
months  in  all.  He  never  lived  where  there 
was  a  church  until  he  went  to  the  Legis- 
lature at  Vandalia,  in  December,  1834. 

It  has  been  claimed  that  at  New  Salem, 
being  "surrounded  by  a  class  of  people  ex- 
ceedingly liberal  in  matters  of  religion,"  by 
reading  skeptical  literature  and  discussing  it 
in  the  tavern  and  the  village  store,  he  him- 
self became  quite  skeptical.  Some  of  his 
biographers  state  that  he  wrote  an  essay 
against  Christianity,  Jesus  Christ,  and  the 
Bible,  which  was  read  and  discussed  in  the 
village  store  until  his  friend  and  employer 
(Mr.  Samuel  Hill)  snatched  the  manuscript 
from  him,  tore  it  in  two,  and  thrust  it  into 
the  stove.  While  this  statement  has  never 


32  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1833 

been  supported  by  any  credible  evidence,  it 
has  been  too  largely  accepted,  not  because 
it  was  reasonable,  but  because  there  did  not 
seem  to  be  any  direct  evidence  to  the  con- 
trary. It  is  most  gratifying  to  all  the  lovers 
of  Lincoln  and  of  historic  truth  to  find  that 
the  exact  opposite  is  true. 

One  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  early  acquaintances 
after  he  went  to  New  Salem  was  Mr.  Mentor 
Graham,  a  school-teacher  of  local  renown 
who  flourished  in  and  around  New  Salem 
from  1829  to  1860.  Mr.  Lincoln  boarded 
with  Mr.  Graham  for  two  years,  and  stud- 
ied English  grammar  and  surveying  under 
him.  Certainly  no  one  had  a  better  oppor- 
tunity to  know  Mr.  Lincoln's  mind.  In  a 
letter  written  March  17,  1874,  from  Peters- 
burg, Illinois,  where  he  was  then  living,  to 
Mr.  B.  F.  Irwin,  Pleasant  Plains,  Illinois,  and 
which  was  published  in  an  article  on  "Lin- 
coln's Religious  Belief,"  in  the  Springfield 
Journal  of  May  16,  1874,  Mr.  Graham  says: 

"In  reply  to  your  inquiries,  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  living  at  my  house  at  New 
Salem,  going  to  school,  studying  English 
grammar  and  surveying,  in  the  year  1833. 
One  morning  he  said  to  me,  'Graham, 


1833]  THE  CHRISTIAN  33 

what  do  you  think  about  the  anger  of  the 
Lord?'  I  replied,  'I  believe  the  Lord 
never  was  angry  or  mad  and  never  would 
be;  that  His  loving-kindness  endureth  for- 
ever; that  He  never  changes.'  Said  Lin- 
coln, 'I  have  a  little  manuscript  written, 
which  I  will  show  you,'  and  stated  he 
thought  of  having  it  published.  The  size 
of  the  manuscript  was  about  one  half 
quire  of  foolscap,  written  in  a  very  plain 
hand,  on  the  subject  of  Christianity,  and  a 
defense  of  universal  salvation.  The  com- 
mencement of  it  was  something  respecting 
the  God  of  the  universe  ever  being  excited, 
mad,  or  angry.  I  had  the  manuscript  in 
my  possession  some  week  or  ten  days.  I 
have  read  many  books  on  the  subject  of 
theology,  and  I  don't  think,  in  point  of 
perspicuity  and  plainness  of  reasoning,  I 
ever  read  one  to  surpass  it.  I  remember 
well  his  argument.  He  took  the  passage, 
'As  in  Adam  all  die,  even  so  in  Christ  shall 
all  be  made  alive,'  and  followed  with  the 
proposition  that  whatever  the  breach  or 
injury  of  Adam's  transgression  to  the 
human  race  was,  which  no  doubt  was  very 
great,  was  made  just  and  right  by  the  atone- 


34  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1833 

ment  of  Christ.  As  to  Major  Hill  burning 
the  manuscript,  I  don't  believe  he  did,  nor 
do  I  think  he  would  have  done  such  a 
thing.  About  the  burning  of  a  paper  by 
Hill,  I  have  some  recollection  of  his  snatch- 
ing a  letter  from  Lincoln  and  putting  it  into 
the  fire.  It  was  a  letter  written  by  Hill  to 
McNamar.  His  real  name  was  Neil.20 
Some  of  the  school  children  had  picked  up 
the  letter  and  handed  it  to  Lincoln.  Neil 
and  Lincoln  were  talking  about  it,  when 
Hill  snatched  the  letter  from  Lincoln  and 
put  it  into  the  fire.  The  letter  was  respect- 
ing a  young  lady,  Miss  Ann  Rutledge,  for 
whom  all  three  of  these  gentlemen  seemed 
to  have  respect."31 

This  is  not  hearsay,  but  an  authentic  and 
original  statement  by  one  whose  personal 
knowledge,  character,  learning,  and  stand- 
ing make  him  a  competent  and  trustworthy 
witness.  It  ought  forever  to  end  the  base 
slander  that  Mr.  Lincoln  "hurled  his  wit  and 
keen  logic  against  the  sacred  teachings  of  his 
mother's  Bible."  What  he  really  did  was  to 
make  a  protest  against  the  "rude  theology" 
of  uneducated  preachers  and  the  misrepre- 
sentations of  biblical  doctrines  by  skeptics. 


1836-7]  THE  CHRISTIAN  35 

INDICATIONS  OF  RELIGIOUS  BELIEF 
At  this  time,  beneath  the  rough  ex- 
terior, there  was  a  religious  nature  and  the 
rudiments  of  Christian  faith,  as  shown 
in  expressions  found  in  authentic  letters 
and  speeches.  In  1836  he  shows  his  faith 
in  a  ruling  Providence  in  the  following 
words,  spoken  in  a  discussion  of  the  ques- 
tion of  "woman's  rights"  and  "temperance": 
"All  such  questions  must  first  find  lodg- 
ment with  the  most  enlightened  souls  who 
stamp  them  with  their  approval.  In  God's 
own  time  they  will  be  organized  into  law 
and  thus  woven  into  the  fabric  of  our 
institutions."22 

December  13,  1836,  in  a  letter  to  Miss 
Mary  Owens,  written  while  he  was  in  the 
Legislature,  he  says,  "They  will  smile  as 
complacently  at  the  angry  snarl  of  the 
contending  Van  Buren  candidates  and  their 
respective  friends  as  the  Christian  does  at 
Satan's  rage."* 

In  a  speech  before  the  Illinois  Legislature 
in  January,  1837,  speaking  of  the  scenes 
of  the  Revolution,  he  says,  "In  history, 
we  hope,  they  will  be  read  of,  and  recounted, 
so  long  as  the  Bible  shall  be  read."  In  his 


36  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1837 

closing  words  he  refers  to  the  greatness  of 
the  church,  saying,  "Upon  these  let  the 
proud  fabric  of  freedom  rest,  as  the  rock 
of  its  basis,  and  as  truly  as  has  been  said 
of  the  only  greater  institution,  'the  gates 
of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  it.'  ' 

LIFE  MORE  SERIOUS 
After  his  removal  to  Springfield,  in  1837, 
to  engage  in  the  practice  of  law,  he  entered 
a  new  world,  encompassed  by  new  associa- 
tions. He  came  into  contact  with  people 
of  culture — with  "men  of  thought  and  men 
of  action,"  many  of  them  of  exalted  char- 
acter, both  in  church  and  state.  Books 
were  more  accessible,  and  his  range  of 
reading  increased.  Life  became  more  real 
and  serious,  and  his  mind  began  to  seek  a 
true  conception  of  the  great  principles  of 
life.  His  regular  attendance  at  church 
enabled  him  to  hear  able  and  educated 
ministers  who  were  instructive,  suggestive, 
and  eloquent. 

HEARD    THE   REV.    PETER   AKERS,    D.D. 

In    1837,   then   twenty-eight  years   old, 
he  went  with  some  friends  to  a  camp  meet- 


1837]  THE  CHRISTIAN  37 

ing  six  miles  west  of  Springfield,  at  the 
"Salem  Church."  The  Rev.  Peter  Akers, 
D.D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
a  vigorous  and  fearless  man,  preached  the 
sermon.  He  spoke  of  certain  prophecies, 
and  predicted  "the  downfall  of  castes,  the 
end  of  tyrannies,  and  the  crushing  out  of 
slavery."  On  the  way  home  they  were 
earnestly  discussing  the  sermon.  Lincoln 
said:  "It  was  the  most  instructive  sermon, 
and  he  is  the  most  impressive  preacher,  I 
have  ever  heard.  It  is  wonderful  that  God 
has  given  such  power  to  men.  I  firmly 
believe  his  interpretation  of  prophecy,  so 
far  as  I  understand  it,  and  especially  about 
the  breaking  down  of  civil  and  religious 
tyrannies;  and,  odd  as  it  may  seem,  I  was 
deeply  impressed  that  I  should  be  somehow 
strangely  mixed  up  with  them."23 

We  do  not  claim  that  at  this  time  Lincoln 
was  a  man  of  orthodox  belief,  but  we  do 
claim  that  he  was  a  believer  in  God,  and 
nominally  religious. 

THE  SOUL'S  ALMIGHTY  ARCHITECT 
In  a  speech  at  a  political  discussion  in 
the  hall  of  the  House  of  Representatives  at 


38  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN       [1839-41 

Springfield,    Illinois,   December,    1839,   we 
find  this  fervid  declaration: 

If  ever  I  feel  the  soul  within  me  elevate  and 
expand  to  those  dimensions  not  wholly  unworthy 
of  its  Almighty  Architect,  it  is  when  I  contemplate 
the  cause  of  my  country,  deserted  by  all  the  world 
beside,  and  I  standing  up  boldly  and  alone  and 
hurling  defiance  at  her  victorious  oppressors.  Here, 
without  contemplating  consequences,  before  High 
Heaven  and  in  the  face  of  the  world,  I  swear  eter- 
nal fidelity  to  the  just  cause,  as  I  deem  it,  of  the 
land  of  my  life,  my  liberty,  and  my  love.* 

AN  OXFORD  BIBLE 

Returning  from  a  visit  to  the  home  of 
the  Speeds  in  Kentucky,  Mr.  Lincoln  writes 
to  Miss  Mary  Speed,  September  27,  1841. 
Speaking  of  the  cheerfulness  of  slaves 
chained  together  on  the  steamboat,  he  says, 
"How  true  it  is  that  'God  tempers  the 
wind  ta  the  shorn  lamb,'  or  in  other  words, 
that  he  renders  the  worst  of  human  con- 
ditions tolerable,  while  he  permits  the  best 
to  be  nothing  better  than  tolerable."  Again, 
he  says:  "Tell  your  mother  that  I  have  not 
got  her  'present*  [an  Oxford  Bible]"  with 
me,  but  I  intend  to  read  it  regularly  when 
I  return  home.  I  doubt  not  that  it  is 


1841-2]  THE  CHRISTIAN  39 

really,  as  she  says,  the  best  cure  for  the 
blues,  could  one  but  take  it  according  to 
the  truth."* 

LETTERS  TO  SPEED 

It  was  in  1841  and  1842  that  interesting 
letters  passed  between  Lincoln  and  his 
friend,  Joshua  F.  Speed,  when  both  were 
filled  with  forebodings  and  heart-wrestlings 
over  love  matters.  "Lincoln  frequently 
expressed  to  Speed  his  belief  that  the 
Almighty  had  sent  their  suffering  for  a 
special  purpose." 

In  a  letter  to  Speed,  January  1,  1842, 
in  regard  to  Speed's  apprehension  that  he 
did  not  love  his  "intended"  as  he  should, 
Lincoln  says,  "I  adopt  this  as  the  last 
method  I  can  adopt  to  aid  you,  in  case 
(which  God  forbid!)  you  shall  need  my 
aid."  And,  "Let  me,  who  have  some 
reason  to  speak  with  judgment  on  such  a 
subject,  beseech  you  to  ascribe  it  to  the 
causes  I  have  mentioned,  and  not  to  some 
false  and  ruinous  suggestion  of  the  Devil."* 

In  a  letter  to  Speed,  February  3,  1842, 
in  reference  to  Speed's  anxiety  over  the 
sickness  of  his  sweetheart,  as  well  as  his 


40  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1842 

doubts,  Lincoln  says:  "I  almost  feel  a  pre- 
sentiment that  the  Almighty  has  sent  your 
present  affliction  expressly  for  that  ob- 
ject. . .  .  Should  she,  as  you  fear,  be  destined 
to  an  early  grave,  it  is  indeed  a  great 
consolation  to  know  that  she  is  so  well 
prepared  to  meet  it.  Her  religion,  which 
you  once  disliked  so  much,  I  will  venture 
you  now  prize  most  highly."* 

In  a  letter  to  Speed,  March  27,  1842,  he 
uses  these  two  sentences:  "Enough,  dear 
Lord"  and  "God  be  praised  for  that," 
showing  that  his  mind  was  ever  turned 
Godward. 

In  a  letter  to  Speed,  July  4,  1842,  after 
Speed  was  happily  married,  he  says:  "I 
always  was  superstitious;  I  believe  God 
made  me  one  of  the  instruments  of  bring- 
ing Fanny  and  you  together,  which  union 
I  have  no  doubt  he  had  foreordained. 
Whatever  he  designs  he  will  do  for  me 
yet.  'Stand  still  and  see  the  salvation  of 
the  Lord'  is  my  text  just  now."* 

These  utterances  do  not  indicate  any 
real  religious  conviction,  but  they  do  indi- 
cate that  he  believed  in  a  ruling  Provi- 
dence. 


o  -8 
«  -I 

5  2 


THE  CHRISTIAN  41 

LETTER  TO  GEORGE  E.  PICKETT 
February  22,  1842,  in  a  letter  to  George 
E.  Pickett,  who  afterward  became  the 
General  Pickett  who  led  the  famous  charge 
at  Gettysburg,  Mr.  Lincoln  says:  "I  have 
just  told  the  folks  here  in  Springfield  on 
this  110th  anniversary  of  the  birth  of  him 
whose  name,  mightiest  in  the  cause  of 
civil  liberty,  still  mightiest  in  the  cause  of 
moral  reformation,  we  mention  in  solemn 
awe,  in  naked,  deathless  splendor,  that  the 
one  victory  we  can  ever  call  complete  will 
be  that  one  which  proclaims  that  there  is 
not  one  slave  or  one  drunkard  on  the  face 
of  God's  green  earth.  Recruit  for  this 
victory."* 

PEW  IN  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH 
After  Lincoln's  marriage,  November  4, 
1842,  he  and  his  wife  took  a  pew  in  the 
First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Springfield, 
Illinois,  retaining  it  until  their  removal  to 
Washington,25  except  the  few  years  they 
attended  the  Episcopal  Church. 

DENIES  CHARGE  OF  INFIDELITY 
MR.    THOMAS    MOSTILLER,    of    Menard 
County,  Illinois,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  B.  F. 


42  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN         [1847-8 

Irwin,  Pleasant  Plains,  Illinois,  April  28, 
1874,  says:  "In  regard  to  your  inquiry, 
just  received,  of  what  I  heard  Lincoln  say 
about  a  charge  of  infidelity  made  against 
him  when  a  candidate  for  Congress  in  1847 
or  '48,  it  was  this:  I  was  present  and  heard 
Josiah  Grady  ask  Lincoln  a  question  or 
two  regarding  a  charge  made  against  Lin- 
coln of  being  an  infidel,  and  Lincoln  un- 
qualifiedly denied  the  charge  of  infidelity, 
and  said,  in  addition,  his  parents  were 
Baptists,  and  brought  him  up  in  the  belief 
of  the  Christian  religion  as  much  as  anyone, 
but  was  sorry  to  say  he  had  or  made  no 
pretensions  of  religion  himself."28 


1849]  THE  CHRISTIAN  43 


RELIGIOUS  AWAKENING 

During  the  few  years  prior  to  1850, 
Mr.  Lincoln  wrestled  with  doubt  and  un- 
certainty. With  a  sincere  mind  he  vainly 
sought  the  true  foundations  of  character 
upon  which  he  might  build  his  super- 
structure. In  his  searchings  after  truth 
he  now  came  under  the  powerful  in- 
fluence of  a  distinguished  preacher,  a  pro- 
found thinker,  and  a  master  of  the  whole 
philosophy  of  the  Christian  evidences.  This 
man  was  the  Rev.  James  Smith,  D.D., 
who  became  pastor  of  the  First  Presby- 
terian Church  of  Springfield,  Illinois,  the 
early  part  of  1849,  and  continued  in  Spring- 
field until  the  spring  of  1861,  soon  after 
the  inauguration  of  President  Lincoln.  The 
Rev.  William  Bishop,  D.D.,  in  an  address 
at  Salina,  Kansas,  February  12,  1897,  gave 
the  following  account  of  Dr.  Smith  and  his 
testimony  concerning  Mr.  Lincoln's  reli- 
gious thoughts  and  convictions: 

"Dr.  Smith  was  a  large,  stalwart  Scotch- 
man with  a  big  brain,  a  typical  Calvinistic 


44  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1849 

theologian,  Websterian  in  appearance  and 
in  strength  of  logical  argument,  and,  when 
inspired  by  the  theme  or  occasion,  in 
eloquence  overwhelming.  Before  coming 
North  he  had  spent  most  of  his  ministry 
in  the  South,  where  he  was  known  far  and 
wide  as  the  great  preacher  at  camp  meet- 
ings, where  his  voice  could  be  heard  by 
acres  of  people  hanging  upon  his  lips  of 
force  and  fire.  His  reputation  was  still 
farther  extended  and  enhanced  as  a  con- 
troversialist, a  thinker,  and  a  learned 
'defender  of  the  faith,'  by  a  great  debate 
which  he  had  at  Columbus,  Mississippi,  in 
the  winter  of  1839-40,  with  a  celebrated 
infidel  named  C.  G.  Olmstead,  who  through 
a  committee  of  infidel  gentlemen  challenged 
him  to  a  public  discussion.  The  discom- 
fiture of  this  champion  of  infidelity  was 
inevitable.  By  the  universal  testimony,  it 
was  a  Lilliputian  combatant  in  the  hands 
of  a  Brobdingnagian  antagonist.  The  sub- 
stance of  this  debate,  by  popular  demand, 
was  published,  reconstructed  and  enlarged, 
in  1843,  in  a  book  of  two  volumes  of  over 
six  hundred  pages,  with  the  title  The 
Christian's  Defence. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  45 

"Why  I  have  mentioned  Dr.  Smith  and 
his  book  so  particularly  will  immediately 
appear.  And  I  might  say,  parenthetically, 
the  Doctor  presented  me  with  a  copy  of 
his  book.  Perhaps  he  thought  I  was 
skeptical!  It  has  been  in  my  library  forty 
years,  and  I  am  thinking  of  donating  it 
to  the  Kansas  State  Historical  Society,  as 
a  historic  memento  of  the  man  and  the 
book,  that  under  divine  guidance,  con- 
verted Lincoln  to  the  Christian  faith.  But 
to  resume  the  narration:  I  first  met  Dr. 
Smith  in  the  summer  of  1850  in  Jackson- 
ville, at  the  commencement  exercises  of 
Illinois  College,  from  which  I  had  graduated 
and  had  just  been  appointed  a  member  of 
the  faculty  of  instruction.  The  acquaint- 
ance then  formed  ripened  into  mutual  and 
congenial  friendship.  And  during  the  two 
years  of  my  connection  with  the  college 
I  was  frequently  a  visitor  and  guest  at  his 
house  in  Springfield,  and  when,  by  reason 
of  removal  to  another  institution  in  an- 
other State,  the  visits  were  fewer  and 
farther  between,  ca  free  epistolary  corre- 
spondence' continued  to  strengthen  and 
brighten  the  links  of  fellowship.  With  his 


46  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

other  accomplishments,  Dr.  Smith  was  an 
interesting  and  instructive  conversational- 
ist— in  fact,  quite  a  raconteur,  somewhat 
like  his  friend  Lincoln,  always  ready  with  a 
story  to  illustrate  his  opinions,  and  which 
gave  piquancy  to  his  conversation.  When- 
ever he  had  occasion  to  speak  of  Lincoln 
he  always  evinced  the  strongest  attachment 
and  the  warmest  friendship  for  him,  which 
was  known  to  be  fully  reciprocated.  Dem- 
ocrat as  he  was,  and  tinged  with  Southern 
hues — though  never  a  secessionist — there 
seemed  to  be  a  mystic  cord  uniting  the 
minister  and  the  lawyer.  This  was  sub- 
sequently beautifully  shown  on  the  part 
of  Mr.  Lincoln,  who  never  forgot  to  do  a 
generous  thing.  When  he  was  elected 
President  Dr.  Smith  and  wife  were  getting 
old,  their  children  all  married  and  gone, 
except  their  youngest  son,  a  young  man 
of  twenty -three  or  four  years  of  age.  One 
of  Lincoln's  first  official  acts,  after  his 
inauguration,  was  the  appointment  of  this 
young  man  to  the  consulate  at  Dundee, 
Scotland.  The  Doctor,  with  his  wife  and 
son,  returned  to  the  land  of  his  birth.  The 
son  soon  returned  to  America,  and  Dr. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  47 

Smith  himself  was  appointed  consul,  which 
position  he  retained  until  his  death  in  1871. 

"In  the  spring  of  1857  Dr.  Smith,  an- 
ticipating a  necessary  absence  from  his 
church  of  two  or  three  months  during  the 
summer,  invited  me  to  supply  his  pulpit 
until  his  return.  Being  young  and  inex- 
perienced in  the  ministry,  with  considerable 
hesitation  I  accepted  his  urgent  invitation. 
So  I  spent  my  college  vacation  performing 
as  best  I  could  this  service.  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  a  regular  attendant  at  church  and 
evidently  an  attentive  hearer  and  devout 
worshiper. 

"As  a  college  student  I  had  seen  and 
heard  him  and  looked  up  to  him  as  a  being 
towering  above  common  men;  and,  I  con- 
fess, I  was  not  a  little  intimidated  by  his 
presence  as  he  sat  at  the  end  of  a  seat  well 
forward  toward  the  pulpit,  with  his  deep 
eyes  fixed  upon  me,  and  his  long  legs 
stretched  out  in  the  middle  aisle  to  keep 
them  from  (using  one  of  his  own  colloquial- 
isms) being  scrouged  in  the  narrow  space 
between  the  pews.  My  'stage  fright,'  how- 
ever, was  soon  very  much  relieved  by  his 
kindliness  and  words  of  encouragement. 


48  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

"On  a  certain  Sunday,  the  third,  as  I 
recollect  it,  in  my  term  of  service,  I  deliv- 
ered a  discourse  on  the  text,  'Without 
God  in  the  World.'  The  straight  transla- 
tion from  the  Greek  is,  'Atheists  in  the 
World.'  In  discussing  atheism,  theoretical 
and  practical,  I  endeavored  to  elucidate 
and  enforce  the  fallacy  of  the  one  and  the 
wickedness  of  the  other.  At  the  close  of 
the  service  Mr.  Lincoln  came  up  and, 
putting  his  right  hand  in  mine  and  his 
left  on  my  shoulder,  with  other  impressive 
remarks,  said,  'I  can  say  "Amen"  to  all 
that  you  have  said  this  morning.'  From 
that  time  on  my  interest  in  him  grew  apace. 

"He  was  then  known  extensively  all  over 
the  West  as  a  great  and  good  man,  and 
only  a  year  afterward  he  bounded  into 
national  fame  by  his  victory  in  the  great 
debate  with  Douglas,  who,  up  to  that  time, 
was  regarded  as  a  debater  invincible. 

"During  my  brief  sojourn  in  Springfield 
I  had  many  opportunities  of  meeting  Lin- 
coln, hearing  him  and  talking  with  him 
at  home,  in  church,  in  society,  and  in  the 
courts  of  justice. 

"Dr.  Smith  returned  in  due  time  to  resume 


1849]  THE  CHRISTIAN  49 

his  pastoral  functions.  In  reporting  to  him, 
in  general,  my  labors  in  the  church  as  his 
substitute  during  his  absence,  and  in  par- 
ticular my  conceptions  of  Lincoln's  religious 
character,  he  intimated  that  he  knew  some- 
thing of  Lincoln's  private  personal  religious 
experiences,  feelings,  and  beliefs  which  re- 
sulted in  his  conversion  to  the  Christian 
faith.  After  some  urging  to  be  more 
explicit,  he  made  the  following  statement, 
which  is  herewith  submitted,  couched  sub- 
stantially in  his  own  language.  The  Doctor 
said: 

f  *I  came  to  Springfield  to  take  the 
pastoral  charge  of  this  church  [First  Presby- 
terian] about  eight  years  ago  [1849].  During 
the  first  of  these  years,  I  might  say,  I  had 
only  a  speaking  or  general  acquaintance 
with  Mr.  Lincoln  [now  forty  years  old]. 
Two  or  three  years  previous  to  my  coming 
here  Mrs.  Lincoln,  who  had  been  a  member 
of  our  church,  for  some  reason  changed 
her  church  relations  and  was  a  regular 
attendant  at  the  services  of  the  Episcopal 
Church.  Mr.  Lincoln,  at  that  time,  having 
no  denominational  preferences,  went  with 
her.  And  so  the  family  continued  to  fre- 


50  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1849 

quent  the  sanctuary  for  a  year  or  more 
after  I  began  my  ministry  here.  The  occa- 
sion which  opened  up  the  way  to  my 
intimate  relations  to  Mr.  Lincoln  was  this, 
viz.:  In  the  latter  part  of  1849  death  came 
into  his  family.  His  second  son  died  at 
about  three  or  four  years  of  age.  The 
rector,  an  excellent  clergyman,  being,  tem- 
porarily absent,  could  not  be  present  to 
conduct  the  burial  service,  and  I  was  called 
to  officiate  at  the  funeral.  This  led  me  to  an 
intimate  acquaintance  with  the  family,  and 
grew  into  an  enduring  and  confidential 
friendship  between  Mr.  Lincoln  and  myself. 
One  result  was  that  the  wife  and  mother 
returned  to  her  ancestral  church,  and  the 
husband  and  father  very  willingly  came 
with  her,  and  ever  since  has  been  a  constant 
attendant  upon  my  ministry.  I  found  him 
very  much  depressed  and  downcast  at  the 
death  of  his  son,  and  without  the  consola- 
tion of  the  gospel.  Up  to  this  time  I  had 
heard  but  little  concerning  his  religious 
views,  and  that  was  to  the  effect  that  he 
was  a  deist  and  inclined  to  skepticism  as 
to  the  divine  origin  of  the  Scriptures, 
though,  unlike  most  skeptics,  he  had  evi- 


REV.  JAMES  SMITH,  D.D. 
Photograph  furnished  by  his  granddaughter,  Miss  Jcanette  E.  Smith 


1849]  THE  CHRISTIAN  51 

dently  been  a  constant  reader  of  the  Bible. 
I  found  him  an  honest  and  anxious  inquirer. 
He  gradually  revealed  the  state  of  his 
mind  and  heart,  and  at  last  unbosomed  his 
doubts  and  struggles  and  unrest  of  soul. 
In  frequent  conversations  I  found  that  he 
was  perplexed  and  unsettled  on  the  funda- 
mentals of  religion,  by  speculative  diffi- 
culties, connected  with  Providence  and 
revelation,  which  lie  beyond  and  above  the 
legitimate  province  of  religion.  With  some 
suggestions  bearing  on  the  right  attitude 
required  for  impartial  investigation,  I  placed 
in  his  hands  my  book  (The  Christian's 
Defence)  on  the  evidence  of  Christianity, 
which  gives  the  arguments  for  and  against 
the  divine  authority  and  inspiration  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures.  Mr.  Lincoln  took  the 
book,  and  for  a  number  of  weeks,  as  a 
lawyer,  examined  and  weighed  the  evidence, 
pro  and  con,  and  judged  of  the  credibility 
of  the  contents  of  revelation.  And  while 
he  was  investigating  I  was  praying  that 
the  Spirit  of  Truth  might  lead  him  into 
the  kingdom  of  truth.  And  suclj  was  the 
result,  for  at  the  conclusion  of  his  examina- 
tion he  came  forth  his  doubts  scattered  to 


52  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN         [1850-1 

the  winds  and  his  reason  convinced  by  the 
arguments  in  support  of  the  inspired  and 
infallible  authority  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments — a  believer  in  God,  in  his 
providential  government,  in  his  Son,  the 
way,  the  truth,  and  the  life,  and  from 
that  time  (nearly  seven  years)  to  this  day 
his  life  has  proved  the  genuineness  of  his 
conversion  to  the  Christian  faith.  For  this 
I  humbly  ascribe  to  our  heavenly  Father 
the  honor  and  the  glory.'  "27 

The  preceding  declaration  by  Dr.  Smith 
was  made  in  September,  1857. 

LETTER  FROM   DR.    SMITH 

In  corroboration  of  this,  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Smith  wrote  from  Cainno,  Scotland,  Jan- 
uary 24,  1867,  to  W.  H.  Herndon,  Mr. 
Lincoln's  law  partner,  as  follows:  "It  was 
my  honor  to  place  before  Mr.  Lincoln 
arguments  designed  to  prove  the  divine 
authority  and  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures, 
accompanied  by  the  arguments  of  infidel 
objectors  in  their  own  language.  To  the 
arguments  on  both  sides  Mr.  Lincoln  gave 
a  most  patient,  impartial,  and  searching 
investigation.  To  use  his  own  language,  he 


1850-1]  THE  CHRISTIAN  53 

examined  /the  arguments  as  a  lawyer  who 
is  anxious  to  reach  the  truth  investigates 
testimony.  The  result  was  the  announce- 
ment by  himself  that  the  argument  in 
favor  of  the  divine  authority  and  inspira- 
tion of  the  Scriptures  was  unanswerable."28 

LETTER  FROM  MR.   NINIAN  W.   EDWARDS 

MR.  NINIAN  W.  EDWARDS,  of  Springfield, 
Illinois,  a  brother-in-law  of  Mr.  Lincoln, 
wrote  to  the  Rev.  James  A.  Reed  on 
December  24,  1872,  as  follows:  "A  short 
time  after  the  Rev.  Dr.  Smith  became 
pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  in 
this  city  Mr.  Lincoln  said  to  me,  *I  have 
been  reading  a  work  by  Dr.  Smith  on  the 
evidences  of  Christianity,  and  have  heard 
him  preach  and  converse  on  the  subject, 
and  I  am  convinced  of  the  truth  of  the 
Christian  religion.'  "29 

LETTER   FROM   MR.  THOMAS   LEWIS 

MR.  THOMAS  LEWIS  was  a  lawyer,  an  inti- 
mate friend  of  Mr.  Lincoln  from  1837  to 
1861,  and  occupied  the  same  law  office  in 
Springfield,  Illinois.  He  was  an  elder  in 
the  First  Presbyterian  Church  when  Dr. 


54  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN         [1860-1 

Smith  was  the  pastor.  November  10,  1898, 
then  living  in  Kansas  City,  Missouri,  he 
wrote  a  letter  on  "Lincoln's  Views  of  the 
Bible,"  which  was  read  before  the  Old 
Men's  Association  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  of 
which  he  was  president.  In  this  letter  he 
says: 

"During  the  fifties  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Lincoln 
visited  her  uncle  in  Kentucky.  On  their 
return  I  called  on  him.  At  that  time  he 
remarked  that  'while  at  my  wife's  uncle's 
I  got  hold  of  a  book  entitled  Smith  on 
Infidelity,  written  by  your  Dr.  Smith* 
(meaning  the  Rev.  James  Smith,  D.D., 
pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church). 
*I  read  it  about  half  through,  and  it  has 
given  me  different  views  of  the  Bible  from 
those  I  have  ever  entertained,  and  I  want 
to  get  that  book  and  finish  reading  it. 
Can  you  help  me  to  get  it?'  I  replied  by 
saying:  'Yes,  I  heard  the  Doctor  say  a  few 
days  since  he  had  sold  his  last  book,  and  I 
have  no  doubt  that  some  who  have  read  it 
would  be  willing  to  part  with  it  for  the  $5 
they  had  paid  for  it.'  Said  he,  'As  long 
as  the  Doctor  has  been  here,  I  have  not 
made  his  acquaintance.  I  wish  you  would 


1850-1]  THE  CHRISTIAN  55 

see  him,  have  him  get  a  book,  bring  him 
around,  and  give  me  an  introduction.'  I 
saw  the  Doctor.  He  procured  the  book. 
Next  day  I  went  with  him  to  Mr.  Lincoln's 
office  and  gave  the  introduction.  After  an 
hour  of  pleasant  conversation  we  left.  I 
went  out  first,  the  Doctor  following.  As 
the  Doctor  passed  out,  the  door  partly 
closed;  he  reopened  it,  and  said,  'Mr.  Lin- 
coln, if  agreeable,  I  should  like  to  see  you 
in  our  church  some  day.'  'Dr.  Smith,'  said 
Lincoln,  'I  will  be  there  next  Sunday.'  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Lincoln  were  in  the  church,  and 
the  following  Sunday  they  were  there  also. 
"I  was  an  elder,  trustee,  treasurer,  col- 
lector, superintendent  of  the  Sunday  school, 
and  pew-renter.  The  following  Tuesday, 
after  the  second  Sunday,  Mr.  Lincoln 
called  on  me  and  inquired  if  there  were 
any  pews  to  rent  in  the  church.  I  replied, 
'Yes,  and  a  very  desirable  one,  vacated  by 
Governor  Madison,  who  has  just  left  the 
city.'  'What  is  the  rent?'  said  he.  'Fifty 
dollars,  payable  quarterly.'  He  handed  me 
$12.50.  Said  he,  Tut  it  down  to  me/ 
From  that  date  he  paid  each  three  months 
on  said  pew  until  he  left  for  Washington; 


56  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1852 

and  from  the  first  Sunday  he  was  there  I 
have  not  known  of  his  not  occupying  that 
pew  every  Sunday  he  was  in  the  city  until 
he  left.  The  seat  was  immediately  in  front 
of  mine.  The  third  Sunday  his  children 
came  in  the  Sunday  school. 

"Shortly  thereafter  there  was  a  revival 
in  the  church,  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Lincoln, 
when  he  was  in  the  city,  attended  meeting. 
In  his  absence  she  was  there.  They  at- 
tended not  only  the  regular  meetings,  but 
the  inquiry  meetings  also,  and  it  was  the 
belief  that  both  would  unite  with  the 
church.  When  the  candidates  were  ex- 
amined Mr.  Lincoln  was  in  Detroit,  prose- 
cuting a  patent  right  case,  a  branch  of  the 
profession  in  which  he  had  acquired  an 
enviable  reputation.  Mrs.  Lincoln  stated 
that  she  was  confirmed  in  the  Episcopal 
Church  when  twelve  years  of  age,  but 
did  not  wish  to  join  the  church  by  letter, 
but  upon  profession  of  faith,  as  she  was 
never  converted  until  Dr.  Smith's  preach- 
ing. She  was  admitted  [1852].  Mr.  Lincoln 
never  applied.  Some  months  later  the  ses- 
sion of  the  church  invited  Mr.  Lincoln  to 
deliver  a  lecture  on  the  Bible.  When  it 


1850]  THE  CHRISTIAN  57 

became  known  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  to 
lecture  in  the  Presbyterian  church  it  assured 
a  full  house.  It  was  said  by  divines  and 
others  to  be  the  ablest  defense  of  the  Bible 
ever  uttered  in  that  pulpit. 

"From  the  introduction  of  Mr.  Lincoln 
to  Dr.  Smith  their  intimacy  was  of  a  most 
cordial  character.  At  their  last  meeting 
previous  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  leaving  for  Wash- 
ington, as  they  parted,  Mr.  Lincoln  said, 
'Doctor,  I  wish  to  be  remembered  in  the 
prayers  of  yourself  and  our  church 
members.'  "30 

This  statement  by  his  pastor  and  con- 
fidential friend,  corroborated  by  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's brother-in-law  and  an  elder  of  the 
church,  is  an  original  and  authentic  source 
of  information,  and  should  forever  settle 
all  controversy  and  cavil  touching  the  re- 
ligious belief  and  character  of  Mr.  Lincoln. 

ADDRESS  TO  BIBLE  SOCIETY 
About  1850  he  accepted  an  invitation 
to  deliver  an  address  from  the  pulpit  of 
the  First  Presbyterian  Church  before  the 
Springfield  Bible  Society.  "The  object  of 
the  address  was  to  inculcate  the  importance 


58  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1851 

of  having  the  Bible  placed  in  possession  of 
every  family  in  the  State.  He  closed  by 
saying:  'It  seems  to  me  that  nothing  short 
of  infinite  wisdom  could  by  any  possibility 
have  devised  and  given  to  man  this  excel- 
lent and  perfect  moral  code.  It  is  suited  to 
men  in  all  conditions  of  life,  and  includes 
all  the  duties  they  owe  to  their  Creator, 
to  themselves,  and  to  their  fellow  man.'  "" 

MESSAGE  TO  His  DYING  FATHER 
January  12,   1851,  Lincoln  wrote  to  his 
stepbrother,  John  D.  Johnston,  concerning 
his  father,  who  was  very  sick,  saying: 

I  sincerely  hope  father  may  recover  his  health, 
but,  at  all  events,  tell  him  to  remember  to  call 
upon  and  confide  in  our  great  and  good  and  merci- 
ful Maker,  who  will  not  turn  away  from  him  in 
any  extremity.  He  notes  the  fall  of  a  sparrow, 
and  numbers  the  hairs  of  our  heads,  and  He  will 
not  forget  the  dying  man  who  puts  his  trust  in 
Him.  Say  to  him  that  if  we  could  meet  now  it 
is  doubtful  whether  it  would  not  be  more  painful 
than  pleasant,  but  that  if  it  be  his  lot  to  go  now, 
he  will  soon  have  a  joyous  meeting  with  many 
loved  ones  gone  before,  and  where  the  rest  of  us, 
through  the  help  of  God,  hope  ere  long  to  join 
them.* 

Would  you  call  the  author  of  that  letter 


1852]  THE  CHRISTIAN  59 

to  a  dying  father  an  infidel,  a  skeptic,  an 
unbeliever?  Who  could  couch  in  more 
beautiful  and  reverent  language  the  com- 
forting doctrines  of  the  Bible  to  a  dying  man? 

BEFRIENDS  A  NEGRO  WOMAN 
One  afternoon  an  old  Negro  woman  came 
into  Mr.  Lincoln's  office  and  told  how  her 
son  had  gone  to  New  Orleans  as  a  deck 
hand  on  a  steamboat  and  had  been  seized 
by  the  police,  tried  and  fined,  in  accordance 
with  the  law  then  in  force  concerning  free 
Negroes  from  other  States.  He  was  to  be 
sold  to  pay  his  fine  and  expenses.  The 
governor  was  appealed  to,  but  regretted 
that  under  the  law  he  could  do  nothing. 
Greatly  agitated,  Mr.  Lincoln  rose  to  his 
feet  and  exclaimed,  "By  the  Almighty! 
I'll  have  that  Negro  back  soon,  or  I'll 
have  twenty  years'  excitement  in  Illinois, 
until  the  governor  does  have  a  legal  and 
constitutional  right  to  do  something  in  the 
premises."" 

EULOGY  OF  EfENRY  CLAY 
Mr.  Lincoln  delivered  a  masterly  eulogy 
on    Henry    Clay   in    the   State   House   at 
Springfield,  Illinois,  July  16,  1852,  closing 


60  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN         [1854-5 

as  follows:  "Such  a  man  the  times  have 
demanded,  and  such,  in  the  providence  of 
God,  was  given  us.  But  he  is  gone.  Let 
us  strive  to  deserve,  as  far  as  mortals  may, 
the  continued  care  of  Divine  Providence, 
trusting  that  in  future  national  emergencies 
He  will  not  fail  to  provide  us  the  instru- 
ments of  safety  and  security."* 

GOOD  AND  EVIL 

In  a  speech  at  Peoria,  Illinois,  October 
16,  1854,  in  reply  to  Senator  Douglas,  he 
says:  "God  did  not  place  good  and  evil 
before  man,  telling  him  to  make  a  choice. 
On  the  contrary,  He  did  tell  him  there  was 
one  tree  of  the  fruit  of  which  he  should 
not  eat,  upon  pain  of  certain  death."* 

PROBLEM  TOO  MIGHTY 
In  a  letter  to  George  Robertson,  August 
15,  1855,  speaking  of  the  solution  of  the 
slavery  question,  he  says,  "The  problem  is 
too  mighty  for  me — may  God,  in  His 
mercy,  superintend  the  solution."* 

THE  BATTLE  OF  FREEDOM 
Mr.    Lincoln    delivered    his    first    great 
speech  on  the  right  or  the  wrong  of  slavery 


1856]  THE  CHRISTIAN  61 

at  Bloomington,  Illinois,  May  29,  1856, 
before  the  first  Republican  State  Conven- 
tion of  Illinois.  The  following  extracts  give 
some  idea  of  its  lofty  Christian  tone: 

"The  battle  of  freedom  is  to  be  fought 
out  on  principle.  Slavery  is  a  violation  of 
the  eternal  right.  We  have  temporized 
with  it  from  the  necessities  of  our  con- 
dition; but  as  sure  as  God  reigns  and  school 
children  read,  THAT  BLACK  FOUL  LIE  CAN 

NEVER  BE  CONSECRATED  INTO  GOD'S  HAL- 


LOWED TRUTH! 

c« 


Can  we  as  Christian  men,  and  strong 
and  free  ourselves,  wield  the  sledge  or  hold 
the  iron  which  is  to  manacle  anew  an  al- 
ready oppressed  race?  'Woe  unto  them/ 
it  is  written,  'that  decree  unrighteous  de- 
crees and  that  write  grievousness  which 
they  have  prescribed.' ' 

"Those  who  deny  freedom  to  others  de- 
serve it  not  themselves,  and,  under  the 
rule  of  a  just  God,  cannot  long  retain  it." 

Like  one  inspired,  his  face  aglow,  the 
personification  of  moral  power,  he  exclaims 
in  closing — 

"And  while,  in  all  probability,  no  resort 
to  force  will  be  needed,  our  moderation  and 


62  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1858 

forbearance  will  stand  us  in  good  stead 
when,  if  ever,  WE  MUST  MAKE  AN  APPEAL 
TO  BATTLE  AND  TO  THE  GoD  OF  HOSTS !"" 

THE  PERFECT  STANDARD 
In  his  celebrated  reply  to  Douglas,  de- 
livered at  Chicago,  July  10,  1858,  Mr. 
Lincoln  speaks  thus:  "It  is  said  in  one  of 
the  admonitions  of  our  Lord,  'Be  ye  (there- 
fore) perfect,  even  as  your  Father  which 
is  in  heaven  is  perfect.'  The  Saviour,  I 
suppose,  did  not  expect  that  any  human 
creature  could  be  as  perfect  as  the  Father 
in  heaven;  but  He  said,  'As  your  Father 
in  heaven  is  perfect,  be  ye  also  perfect.' 
He  set  up  the  standard,  and  He  who  did 
most  toward  reaching  that  standard,  at- 
tained the  highest  degree  of  moral  perfec- 
tion."* Lincoln  here  says  "our  Lord,"  and 
accepts  as  his  standard  the  perfect  char- 
acter of  the  Father,  and  Jesus  Christ  as 
our  example  of  "the  highest  degree  of  moral 
perfection." 

TRANSGRESSION  AND  ATONEMENT 
MR.  ISAAC  COGDAL,  an  intimate  friend  of 
Mr.  Lincoln  from  the  time  he  came  to  Illi- 
nois until  he  went  to  Washington,  in  a  letter 


1859-60]  THE  CHRISTIAN  63 

to  Mr.  B.  F.  Irwin,  April  10, 1874,  tells  of  a 
conversation  he  had  with  Mr.  Lincoln  in 
the  latter's  office  in  Springfield  about  1859, 
concerning  Mr.  Lincoln's  religious  faith. 
Mr.  Herndon  was  present.  He  says:  "Mr. 
Lincoln  expressed  himself  in  about  these 
words:  He  did  not  nor  could  not  believe  in 
the  endless  punishment  of  anyone  of  the 
human  race.  He  understood  punishment 
for  sin  to  be  a  Bible  doctrine;  that  the 
punishment  was  parental  in  its  object,  aim, 
and  design,  and  intended  for  the  good  of 
the  offender;  hence  it  must  cease  when 
justice  was  satisfied.  He  added  that  all 
that  was  lost  by  the  transgression  of  Adam 
was  made  good  by  the  atonement;  all  that 
was  lost  by  the  fall  was  made  good  by  the 
sacrifice.  And  he  added  this  remark,  that 
punishment  being  a  provision  of  the  gospel 
system,  he  was  not  sure  but  the  world 
would  be  better  if  a  little  more  punishment 
was  preached  by  our  ministers,  and  not  so 
much  pardon  for  sin."34 

DRINKS  ADAM'S  ALE 

May  19,  1860,  a  committee  waited  upon 
Lincoln  at  his  home  in  Springfield  to  notify 


64  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1860 

him  of  his  nomination.  After  his  reply  he 
ordered  "something  to  drink."  Mr.  Lincoln 
gravely  said:  "Gentlemen,  we  must  pledge 
our  mutual  healths  in  the  most  healthy 
beverage  which  God  has  given  to  man.  It 
is  the  only  beverage  I  have  ever  used  or 
allowed  in  my  family,  and  I  cannot  con- 
scientiously depart  from  it  on  the  present 
occasion — it  is  pure  Adam's  ale  from  the 
spring."85 

IMPLORES  DIVINE  HELP 

May  21,  1860,  after  his  nomination,  in  a 
letter  to  J.  R.  Giddings,  he  says,  "May 
the  Almighty  grant  that  the  cause  of  truth, 
justice,  and  humanity  shall  in  no  wise 
suffer  at  my  hands."* 

May  23,  1860,  in  a  letter  to  George 
Ashmun  and  the  Republican  National  Con- 
vention, he  says,  "Imploring  the  assistance 
of  Divine  Providence, ...  I  am  most  happy 
to  cooperate  for  the  practical  success  of 
the  principles  declared  by  the  convention."* 

THE  BATEMAN  INTERVIEW 

At  the  time  of  Lincoln's  nomination  and 
election  in  1860,  Hon.  Newton  Bateman 


1860]  THE  CHRISTIAN  65 

was  superintendent  of  public  instruction  for 
the  State  of  Illinois.  Lincoln  often  went 
into  his  office  for  a  quiet  talk.  Mr.  Bate- 
man  tells  of  one  of  these  "talks"  near  the 
close  of  October,  only  a  few  days  before  the 
election.  Lincoln  was  very  anxious  to 
know  how  the  ministers  of  Springfield  were 
going  to  vote.  A  careful  canvass  of  the 
city  had  been  made,  and  each  citizen  had 
declared  for  whom  he  intended  to  vote. 
The  list  was  before  Lincoln,  and,  with  Mr. 
Bateman,  he  examined  it  carefully.  All 
but  three  of  the  ministers,  and  a  large 
majority  of  the  church  members,  were 
against  Lincoln.  Drawing  forth  a  pocket 
New  Testament,  Lincoln  said,  "I  am  not 
a  Christian — God  knows  I  would  be  one — 
but  I  have  carefully  read  the  Bible,  and  I 
do  not  so  understand  this  book."  With 
trembling  voice  and  his  cheeks  'wet  with 
tears,  he  continued:  "I  know  there  is  a 
God,  and  that  He  hates  injustice  and 
slavery.  I  see  the  storm  coming,  and  I 
know  that  His  hand  is  in  it.  If  He  has  a 
place  and  work  for  me — and  I  think  He 
has — I  believe  I  am  ready.  I  am  nothing, 
but  truth  is  everything.  I  know  I  am 


66  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1860 

right,  because  I  know  that  liberty  is  right, 
for  Christ  teaches  it,  and  Christ  is  God.  I 
have  told  them  that  *a  house  divided  against 
itself  cannot  stand,'  and  Christ  and  reason 
say  the  same;  and  they  will  find  it  so. 
Douglas  don't  care  whether  slavery  is 
voted  up  or  down,  but  God  cares,  and 
humanity  cares,  and  I  care;  and  with 
God's  help  I  shall  not  fail.  I  may  not  see 
the  end;  but  it  will  come,  and  I  shall  be 
vindicated;  and  these  men  will  find  that 
they  have  not  read  their  Bibles  aright." 
After  a  pause,  he  resumed:  "Doesn't  it 
appear  strange  that  men  can  ignore  the 
moral  aspect  of  this  contest?  A  revelation 
could  not  make  it  plainer  to  me  that 
slavery  or  the  government  must  be  de- 
stroyed. The  future  would  be  something 
awful,  as  I  look  at  it,  but  for  this  rock  on 
which  I  stand  [alluding  to  the  Testament 
which  is  still  held  in  .his  hand],  especially 
with  the  knowledge  of  how  these  ministers 
are  going  to  vote.  It  seems  as  if  God  had 
borne  with  this  thing  [slavery]  until  the 
very  teachers  of  religion  have  come  to 
defend  it  from  the  Bible,  and  to  claim  for 
it  a  divine  character  and  sanction;  and 


1860]  THE  CHRISTIAN  67 

now  the  cup  of  iniquity  is  full,  and  the 
vials  of  wrath  will  be  poured  out." 

Mr.  Bateman  adds:  "Everything  he  said 
was  of  a  peculiarly  deep,  tender,  and  re- 
ligious tone,  and  all  was  tinged  with  a 
touching  melancholy.  .  .  .  After  further 
reference  to  a  belief  in  the  Divine  Provi- 
dence, and  the  fact  of  God  in  history, 
the  conversation  turned  upon  prayer.  He 
freely  stated  his  belief  in  the  duty,  priv- 
ilege, and  efficacy  of  prayer,  and  intimated 
in  no  unmistakable  terms  that  he  had 
sought  in  that  way  the  divine  guidance 
and  favor."  As  they  were  about  to  sep- 
arate Mr.  Bateman  remarked:  "I  have 
not  supposed  that  you  were  accustomed 
to  think  so  much  upon  this  class  of  sub- 
jects. Certainly  your  friends  generally  are 
ignorant  of  the  sentiments  you  have  ex- 
pressed to  me."  Lincoln  quickly  replied, 
"I  know  they  are;  but  I  think  more  on 
these  subjects  than  upon  all  others,  and  I 
have  done  so  for  years;  and  I  am  willing 
that  you  should  know  it."38 

With  this  remarkable  scene,  coupled  with 
the  testimony  of  his  pastor,  every  honest 
mind  must  be  convinced  that  Mr.  Lincoln 


68  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1861 

had  found  his  way  to  the  Christian 
standpoint — that  he  stood  on  the  eternal 
truth. 

IN  THE  GARDEN  OF  GETHSEMANE 

JUDGE  JOSEPH  GILLESPIE,  an  old  friend 
living  at  Edwardsville,  Illinois,  tells  of  a 
conversation  he  had  with  Mr.  Lincoln  in 
the  latter's  home  in  Springfield,  Illinois,  at 
the  beginning  of  January,  1861,  in  which 
Mr.  Lincoln  said:  "I  see  the  duty  devolving 
upon  me.  I  have  read,  upon  my  knees,  the 
story  of  Gethsemane,  where  the  Son  of 
God  prayed  in  vain  that  the  cup  of  bitter- 
ness might  pass  from  Him.  I  am  in  the 
garden  of  Gethsemane  now,  and  my  cup 
of  bitterness  is  full  and  overflowing." 

"I  then  told  him,"  says  Judge  Gillespie, 
"that  as  Christ's  prayer  was  not  answered 
and  His  crucifixion  had  redeemed  the  great 
part  of  the  world  from  paganism  to  Chris- 
tianity, so  the  sacrifice  demanded  of  him 
might  be  a  great  beneficence."  Mr.  Gil- 
lespie adds,  "Little  did  I  then  think 
how  prophetic  were  my  words  to  be,  or 
what  a  great  sacrifice  he  was  called  to 
make."87 


1861]  THE  CHRISTIAN  69 

MAY  FALL  LIKE  PETER 

MR.  JOHN  G.  NICOLAY,  his  private  secre- 
tary, says  that  after  his  election,  before  he 
left  Springfield  for  Washington,  Mr.  Lin- 
coln said  to  a  friend,  the  Rev.  Albert  Hale, 
pastor  of  the  Second  Presbyterian  Church 
of  Springfield:  "Mr.  Hale,  I  have  read  my 
Bible  some,  though  not  half  as  much  as  I 
ought,  and  I  have  always  regarded  Peter  as 
sincere  when  he  said  he  would  never  deny 
his  Master.  Yet  he  did  deny  Him.  Now 
I  think  that  I  shall  keep  my  word  and 
maintain  the  stand  I  have  taken;  but,  then, 
I  must  remember  that  I  am  liable  to  infirm- 
ity, and  may  fall."38 


70  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1861 


RELIANCE  UPON  GOD 
FAREWELL  ADDRESS 

In  his  good-by  speech  at  Springfield, 
Illinois,  February  11,  1861,  the  day  on 
which  he  started  for  Washington,  standing 
on  the  rear  platform  of  the  car,  Mr.  Lin- 
coln said: 

To-day  I  leave  you.  I  go  to  assume  a  task 
more  difficult  than  that  which  devolved  upon  General 
Washington.  Unless  the  great  God  who  assisted 
him  shall  be  with  and  aid  me,  I  must  fail;  but  if 
the  same  Omniscient  Mind  and  Almighty  Arm 
that  directed  and  protected  him  shall  guide  and 
support  me,  I  shall  not  fail — I  shall  succeed.  Let 
us  all  pray  that  the  God  of  our  fathers  may  not 
forsake  us  now.  To  Him  I  commend  you  all. 
Permit  me  to  ask  that  with  equal  sincerity  and 
faith  you  will  invoke  His  wisdom  and  guidance 
for  me.38 

JOURNEY   TO   WASHINGTON 

In  his  address  to  the  Legislature  at  Co- 
lumbus, Ohio,  February  13,  he  said:  "I 
can  turn  and  look  for  that  support  without 
which  it  will  be  impossible  for  me  to  per- 
form that  great  task.  I  turn,  then,  and 


1861]  THE  CHRISTIAN  71 

look  to  the  American  people  and  to  that 
God  who  has  never  forsaken  them."* 

At  Steubenville,  Ohio,  February  14,  he 
said,  "Unless  sustained  by  the  American 
people  and  God,  I  cannot  hope  to  be 
successful."40 

At  Buffalo,  New  York,  February  16,  he 
said:  "I  am  sure  I  bring  a  heart  true  to  the 
work.  For  the  ability  to  perform  it,  I 
must  trust  in  that  Supreme  Being  who  has 
never  forsaken  this  favored  land,  through 
the  instrumentality  of  this  great  and  in- 
telligent people.  Without  that  assistance 
I  shall  surely  fail;  with  it,  I  cannot  fail."* 

To  the  Legislature  at  Albany,  New  York, 
February  18,  he  said,  "I  still  have  con- 
fidence that  the  Almighty,  the  Maker  of 
the  Universe,  will,  through  the  instrumen- 
tality of  this  great  and  intelligent  people, 
bring  us  through  this  as  He  has  through 
all  the  other  difficulties  of  our  country."* 

At  the  City  Hall  in  New  York  on  Feb- 
ruary 20  he  said,  "We  look  for  a  restora- 
tion of  fraternal  relations  between  the 
States — only  to  be  accomplished  by  peace- 
ful and  conciliatory  means,  aided  by  the 
wisdom  of  Almighty  God."" 


72  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1861 

At  Newark,  New  Jersey,  February  21, 
he  said,  "I  am  sure,  however,  that  I  have 
not  the  ability  to  do  anything  unaided  of 
God,  and  that  without  His  support,  and 
that  of  this  free,  happy,  prosperous,  and 
intelligent  people,  no  man  can  succeed  in 
doing  that  [the  importance  of  which  we  all 
comprehend."42 

To  the  Senate  at  Trenton,  New  Jersey, 
February  21,  referring  to  the  Revolu- 
tionary War,  he  said,  "I  shall  be  most 
happy,  indeed,  if  I  shall  be  an  humble 
instrument  in  the  hands  of  the  Almighty, 
and  of  this,  his  most  chosen  people,  as  the 
chosen  instrument — also  in  the  hands  of 
the  Almighty — for  perpetuating  the  object 
of  that  great  struggle."43 

"RATHER  BE  ASSASSINATED" 
He  made  a  remarkable  speech  at  Inde- 
pendence Hall,  Philadelphia,  on  Washing- 
ton's Birthday.  In  speaking  of  the  duty 
of  maintaining  the  rights  and  liberty  of 
man  bequeathed  to  us  by  the  fathers, 
under  God,  he  exclaims:  "If  this  country 
cannot  be  saved  without  giving  up  that 
principle,  I  was  about  to  say  I  would 


1861]  THE  CHRISTIAN  73 

rather  be  assassinated  on  the  spot  than  to 
surrender  it.  ...  I  have  said  nothing  but 
what  I  am  willing  to  live  by,  and,  if  it  be 
the  pleasure  of  Almighty  God,  die  by."* 

FIRST  NIGHT  IN  WASHINGTON 
The  first  night  after  his  arrival  in  Wash- 
ington, February  23,  1861,  the  Peace  Con- 
ference called  upon  him  at  the  Willard 
Hotel.  In  answer  to  a  question  from  Wil- 
liam E.  Dodge,  in  reference  to  his  duty, 
Lincoln  said:  "With  the  support  of  the 
people  and  the  assistance  of  the  Almighty, 
I  shall  undertake  to  perform  it."44  A 
little  later,  on  the  same  occasion,  Lincoln 
said:  "Freedom  is  the  natural  condition 
of  the  human  race,  in  which  the  Almighty 
intended  men  to  live.  Those  who  fight 
the  purpose  of  the  Almighty  will  not  suc- 
ceed. They  always  have  been,  they  always 
will  be,  beaten."44  These  utterances  show 
that  Lincoln  trusted  in  God  and  not  in 
himself. 

PRAYS  BEFORE  THE  INAUGURATION 
"Mrs.    Lincoln    said    that    Mr.    Lincoln 
wrote  the  conclusion  of  his  inaugural  ad- 


74  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1861 

dress  the  morning  it  was  delivered.  The 
family  being  present,  he  read  it  to  them. 
He  then  said  he  wished  to  be  left  alone 
for  a  short  time.  The  family  retired  to  an 
adjoining  room,  but  not  so  far  distant  but 
that  the  voice  of  prayer  could  be  dis- 
tinctly heard.  There,  closeted  with  God 
alone,  surrounded  by  the  enemies  who 
were  ready  to  take  his  life,  he  commended 
his  country's  cause  and  all  dear  to  him  to 
God's  providential  care,  and  with  a  mind 
calmed  with  communion  with  his  Father 
in  heaven,  and  courage  equal  to  the  danger, 
he  came  forth  from  that  retirement  ready 
for  duty."45 

FIRST  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS 

In  his  first  inaugural  address,  March  4, 
1861,  we  find  these  two  sentences,  express- 
ing profound  faith  in  God:  "If  the  Almighty 
Ruler  of  Nations,  with  His  eternal  truth 
and  justice,  be  on  your  side  of  the  North, 
or  on  yours  of  the  South,  that  truth 
and  that  justice  will  surely  prevail  by  the 
judgment  of  this  great  tribunal  of  the 
American  people."  And,  again,  he  says, 
"Intelligence,  patriotism,  Christianity,  and 


1861]  THE  CHRISTIAN  75 

a  firm  reliance  on  Him  who  has  never  yet 
forsaken  this  favored  land,  are  still  com- 
petent to  adjust,  in  the  best  way,  all  our 
present  difficulty."* 

His  ONLY  RULER 

Shortly  after  he  became  President  Mrs. 
Lincoln  reported  to  him  that  it  was 
rumored  that  Seward  was  the  power  be- 
hind the  throne.  Lincoln  very  emphati- 
cally replied:  "I  may  not  rule  myself,  but 
certainly  Seward  shall  not.  The  only  ruler 
is  my  conscience — following  God  in  it — 
and  these  men  will  have  to  learn  that 
yet."" 

FIRST  LETTER  OF  CONDOLENCE 
On  May  25,  1861,  he  wrote  a  letter  to  the 
parents  of  Colonel  Ellsworth,  of  whom  he 
was  very  fond,  regarding  his  death.  He 
closed  by  saying,  "May  God  give  you  that 
consolation  which  is  beyond  all  earthly 
power."* 

FIRST  MESSAGE  TO  CONGRESS 
His  first  message  to  the  Thirty-seventh 
Congress,  July  4,   1861,  closes  with  these 
words:    "And    having    thus    chosen    our 


76  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1861 

course,  without  guile  and  with  pure  pur- 
pose, let  us  renew  our  trust  in  God,  and  go 
forward  without  fear  and  with  manly 
hearts."* 

REPLY  TO  TYCOON  OF  JAPAN 
August  1,  1861,  in  reply  to  the  Tycoon 
of  Japan,  he  closes  with  these  words:  "I 
pray  God  to  have  your  Majesty  always  in 
his  safe  and  holy  keeping."* 

FIRST  NATIONAL  FAST-DAY 
That  "Mr.  Lincoln  was  profoundly  and 
intensely  religious"  is  shown  in  his  procla- 
mations of  days  of  fasting,  prayer,  and 
thanksgiving.  The  first  proclamation  of  a 
national  fast-day  was  issued  August  12, 
1861,  as  follows: 

Whereas  a  joint  committee  of  both  houses  of 
Congress  has  waited  on  the  President  of  the  United 
States  and  requested  him  to  "recommend  a  day 
of  public  prayer,  humiliation,  and  fasting,  to  be 
observed  by  the  people  of  the  United  States  with 
religious  solemnities  and  the  offering  of  fervent 
supplications  to  Almighty  God  for  the  safety  and 
welfare  of  these  States,  His  blessings  on  their  arms, 
and  a  speedy  restoration  of  peace": 

And  whereas  it  is  fit  and  becoming  in  all  people, 


1861]  THE  CHRISTIAN  77 

at  all  times,  to  acknowledge  and  revere  the  su- 
preme government  of  God;  to  bow  in  humble 
submission  to  His  chastisements;  to  confess  and 
deplore  their  sins  and  transgressions,  in  the  full 
conviction  that  the  fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  beginning 
of  wisdom;  and  to  pray  with  all  fervency  and  con- 
trition for  the  pardon  of  their  past  offences,  and 
for  a  blessing  upon  their  present  and  prospective 
action: 

And  whereas  when  our  own  beloved  country, 
once,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  united,  prosperous 
and  happy,  is  now  afflicted  with  faction  and  civil 
war,  it  is  peculiarly  fit  for  us  to  recognize  the  hand 
of  God  in  this  terrible  visitation,  and  in  sorrowful 
remembrance  of  our  own  faults  and  crimes  as  a 
nation  and  as  individuals,  to  humble  ourselves 
before  Him  and  to  pray  for  His  mercy — to  pray 
that  we  may  be  spared  farther  punishment  though 
most  justly  deserved;  that  our  arms  may  be  blessed 
and  made  effectual  for  the  reestablishment  of 
law,  order,  and  peace  throughout  the  .wide  extent 
of  our  country;  and  that  the  inestimable  boon 
of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  earned  under  His 
guidance  and  blessing  by  the  labors  and  sufferings 
of  our  fathers,  may  be  restored  in  all  its  original 
excellence : 

Therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President  of  the 
United  States,  do  appoint  the  last  Thursday  of 
September  next  as  a  day  of  humiliation,  prayer, 
and  fasting  for  all  the  people  of  the  nation.  And 
I  do  earnestly  recommend  to  all  the  people,  and 


78  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN        [1861-2 

especially  to  all  ministers  and  teachers  of  religion, 
of  all  denominations,  and  to  all  heads  of  families, 
to  observe  and  keep  that  day,  according  to  their 
several  creeds  and  modes  of  worship,  in  all  humility 
and  with  all  religious  solemnity,  to  the  end  that 
the  united  prayer  of  the  nation  may  ascend  to  the 
Throne  of  Grace,  and  bring  down  plentiful  bless- 
ings upon  our  country.* 

FIRST  ANNUAL  MESSAGE  TO  CONGRESS 

Mr.  Lincoln  opens  his  first  regular  mes- 
sage to  Congress,  December  3,  1861,  by 
expressing  gratitude  to  God,  and  closes  by 
expressing  reliance  on  Him,  as  follows: 

"In  the  midst  of  unprecedented  political 
troubles  we  have  cause  of  great  gratitude 
to  God  for  unusual  good  health  and  most 
abundant  harvests.  .  .  .  The  struggle  of 
to-day  is  not  altogether  for  to-day — it  is 
for  a  vast  future  also.  With  a  reliance  on 
Providence  all  the  more  firm  and  earnest, 
let  us  proceed  in  the  great  task  which 
events  have  devolved  upon  us."* 

REFERS  CONVICT  TO  MERCY  OF  GOD 

February  4,  1862,  in  granting  a  respite 
to  Nathaniel  Gordon,  convicted  for  being 
engaged  in  the  slave  trade,  he  closes  with 


1862]  THE  CHRISTIAN  79 

these  words:  "In  granting  this  respite  it 
becomes  my  painful  duty  to  admonish  the 
prisoner  that,  relinquishing  all  expecta- 
tion of  pardon  by  human  authority,  he 
refer  himself  alone  to  the  mercy  of  the 
common  God  and  Father  of  all  men."* 


80  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1862 


His  GREAT  SORROW 

Thursday,  February  20,  1862,  Mr.  Lin- 
coln experienced  what,  perhaps,  was  the 
greatest  sorrow  of  his  life,  in  the  death  of 
his  little  boy,  Willie.  He  regarded  it  as  an 
act  of  Providence,  but  could  not  under- 
stand it. 

"HARD  TO  HAVE  HIM  DIE" 
One  who  helped  to  prepare  the  body  for 
burial  relates  the  following:  "When  Willie 
died,  as  he  lay  on  the  bed,  Mr.  Lincoln 
came  to  the  bed,  lifted  the  cover  from  the 
face  of  his  child,  gazed  at  it  long  and 
earnestly,  murmuring:  'My  poor  boy,  he 
was  too  good  for  this  earth.  God  has 
called  him  home.  I  know  that  he  is  much 
better  off  in  heaven,  but  then  we  loved 
him  so.  It  is  hard,  hard  to  have  him 
die!""7 

A   CHRISTIAN   NURSE 

A  Christian  lady  from  Massachusetts, 
who  had  come  to  nurse  the  children  in 
their  sickness,  speaks  of  Lincoln's  great 


1862]  THE  CHRISTIAN  81 

affliction  and  sadness.  On  the  morning  of 
the  funeral  she  assured  him  that  many 
Christians  were  praying  for  him.  With 
eyes  suffused  with  tears,  he  replied:  "I  am 
glad  to  hear  that.  I  want  them  to  pray 
for  me.  I  need  their  prayers."  The  lady 
expressed  her  sympathy  with  him  as  they 
were  going  out  to  the  burial.  Thanking 
her  gently,  he  said,  "I  will  try  to  go  to 
God  with  my  sorrows."  She  asked  him  a 
few  days  after  if  he  could  not  trust  God. 
With  deep  religious  feeling,  he  replied:  "I 
think  I  can,  and  I  will  try.  I  wish  I  had 
that  childlike  faith  you  speak  of,  and  I 
trust  He  will  give  it  to  me."  Then  the 
memory  of  his  mother  filled  his  mind  with 
tenderest  recollections,  and  he  said:  "I 
had  a  good  Christian  mother,  and  her 
prayers  have  followed  me  thus  far  through 
life."48 

THE   REV.    FRANCIS   VINTON,  D.D. 

From  this  time  Lincoln's  life  was  filled 
with  the  deepest  sadness  and  melancholy. 
Every  Thursday  was  set  apart  for  the 
indulgence  of  his  grief,  at  which  time  he 
would  see  no  one.  Mrs.  Lincoln  became 


82  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1862 

alarmed  for  his  health.  Dr.  Francis  Vinton, 
rector  of  Trinity  Church,  New  York,  was 
spending  a  few  days  in  Washington.  Being 
an  acquaintance  of  Mrs.  Lincoln,  he  was 
invited  to  the  White  House.  He  was 
apprised  of  the  President's  condition.  A 
favorable  opportunity  presenting  itself,  Dr. 
Vinton  spoke  to  Lincoln  about  it,  and  told 
him  it  was  sinful  to  grieve  so  much  over 
the  departed,  and  unworthy  a  believer  in 
the  Christian  religion.  The  scene  which 
followed  is  described  as  follows: 

"Your  son,"  said  Dr.  Vinton,  "is  alive, 
in  paradise.  Do  you  remember  that  pas- 
sage in  the  Gospels,  'God  is  not  a  God  of 
the  dead,  but  of  the  living:  for  all  live 
unto  him'?"  As  Mr.  Lincoln  caught  the 
words,  "Your  son  is  alive,"  he  started 
from  his  seat,  as  one  aroused  from  a 
stupor,  and  exclaimed,  "Alive!  Alive! 
Surely  you  mock  me."  "No,  sir;  believe 
me,"  replied  Dr.  Vinton;  "it  is  a  most 
comforting  doctrine  of  the  church,  founded 
upon  the  words  of  Christ  himself."  Mr. 
Lincoln  threw  his  arm  around  Dr.  Vinton's 
neck,  laid  his  head  upon  his  breast,  and 
sobbed  aloud,  "Alive?  Alive?"  Dr.  Vinton, 


1862]  THE  CHRISTIAN  83 

greatly  moved,  said:  "My  dear  sir,  believe 
this,  for  it  is  God's  most  precious  truth. 
Seek  not  your  son  among  the  dead;  he  is 
not  there;  he  lives  to-day  in  paradise! 
Think  of  the  full  import  of  the  words  I 
have  quoted.  The  Sadducees,  when  they 
questioned  Jesus,  had  no  other  conception 
than  that  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  were 
dead  and  buried.  Mark  the  reply:  'Now 
that  the  dead  are  raised,  even  Moses 
showed  at  the  bush  when  he  called  the 
Lord  the  God  of  Abraham,  the  God  of 
Isaac,  and  the  God  of  Jacob.  For  He  is 
not  the  God  of  the  dead,  but  of  the  living, 
for  all  live  unto  Him!'  Did  not  the  great 
patriarch  mourn  his  sons  as  dead?  'Joseph 
is  not,  and  Simeon  is  not,  and  ye  will  take 
Benjamin,  also!'  But  Joseph  and  Simeon 
were  both  living,  though  he  believed  it 
not.  Indeed,  Joseph  being  taken  from 
him  was  the  eventual  means  of  the  preser- 
vation of  the  whole  family.  And  so  God 
has  called  your  son  into  His  upper  kingdom 
— a  kingdom  and  an  existence  as  real,  more 
real,  than  your  own.  It  may  be  that  he 
too,  like  Joseph,  has  gone,  in  God's  good 
providence,  to  be  the  salvation  of  his 


84  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1862 

father's  household.  It  is  a  part  of  the 
Lord's  plan  for  the  ultimate  happiness  of 
you  and  yours.  Doubt  it  not." 

Dr.  Vinton  told  Lincoln  that  he  had  a 
sermon  upon  the  subject.  Mr.  Lincoln 
asked  him  to  send  it  to  him  as  early  as 
possible,  and  thanked  him  repeatedly  for 
his  cheering  and  hopeful  words.  When 
Lincoln  received  the  sermon  he  read  it 
over  and  over,  and  had  a  copy  made  for 
his  own  private  use.  A  member  of  the 
family  said  that  Mr.  Lincoln's  views  in 
relation  to  spiritual  things  seemed  changed 
from  that  hour.49 

RESPONSIBILITY  TO  GOD 
March  6,  1862,  President  Lincoln  sent  to 
the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives 
a  message  recommending  compensated 
emancipation  of  slavery,  closing  with  these 
words:  "In  full  view  of  my  responsibility 
to  my  God  and  my  country,  I  earnestly 
beg  the  attention  of  Congress  and  the 
people  to  the  subject."* 

MUST  WORK  OUT  DESTINY 
In  April,  1862,  the  Rev.  N.  W.  Miner 
and  wife,  of  Springfield,  Illinois,  visited  the 


1862]  THE  CHRISTIAN  85 

Lincolns  at  the  White  House.  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  sad  and  dejected  over  the  death  of  lit- 
tle Willie,  and  the  destruction  of  life  at  the 
battle  of  Shiloh.  He  was  discouraged.  Mr. 
Miner  said:  "Well,  Mr.  Lincoln,  you  have 
this  encouragement:  Christian  people  all 
over  the  country  are  praying  for  you  as 
they  never  prayed  for  mortal  man  before." 
"I  believe  that,"  he  replied,  "and  this  has 
been  an  encouraging  thought  for  me.  If  I 
were  not  sustained  by  the  prayers  of  God's 
people,  I  could  not  endure  the  constant 
pressure.  I  should  give  up  hoping  for 
success."  Mr.  Miner  asked,  "Do  you 
think,  judging  from  your  standpoint,  that 
we  shall  be  able  to  put  down  the  rebellion?" 
He  answered:  "You  know  I  am  not  of  a 
very  hopeful  temperament.  I  can  take 
hold  of  a  thing  and  hold  on  a  good  while. 
By  trusting  God  for  help,  and  believing 
that  our  cause  is  just  and  right,  I  firmly 
believe  we  shall  conquer  in  the  end."  After 
further  conversation  he  said:  "I  would 
gladly,  if  I  could,  take  my  neck  from  under 
the  yoke,  and  go  home  with  you  to  Spring- 
field, and  live  as  I  used,  in  peace  with  my 
friends,  than  to  endure  this  harassing  kind 


86  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1862 

of  life.  But,"  with  great  solemnity  he 
added,  "it  has  pleased  Almighty  God  to 
place  me  in  my  present  position,  and,  look- 
ing to  Him  for  wisdom  and  divine  guidance, 
I  must  work  out  my  destiny  as  best  I 


can."50 


April  10,  1862,  Mr.  Lincoln  issued  his 
first  proclamation  recommending  thanks- 
giving for  victories  as  follows: 

It  has  pleased  Almighty  God  to  vouchsafe 
signal  victories  to  the  land  and  naval  forces  engaged 
in  suppressing  an  internal  rebellion,  and  at  the 
same  time  to  avert  from  our  country  the  danger 
of  foreign  intervention  and  invasion: 

It  is  therefore  recommended  to  the  people  of 
the  United  States  that,  at  their  next  weekly  assem- 
blages in  then-  accustomed  places  of  public  worship 
which  shall  occur  after  notice  of  this  proclamation 
shall  have  been  received,  they  especially  acknowl- 
edge and  render  thanks  to  our  Heavenly  Father 
for  these  inestimable  blessings;  that  they  then  and 
there  implore  spiritual  consolation  in  behalf  of  all 
who  have  been  brought  into  affliction  by  the  cas- 
ualties and  calamities  of  sedition  and  civil  war; 
and  that  they  reverently  invoke  the  divine  guidance 
for  our  national  counsels,  to  the  end  that  they 
may  speedily  result  in  the  restoration  of  peace, 
harmony,  and  unity  throughout  our  borders,  and 


1862]  THE  CHRISTIAN  87 

hasten    the    establishment    of    fraternal    relations 
among  all  the  countries  of  earth.* 

REPLY  TO  EVANGELICAL  LUTHERANS 

May  6(?),  1862,  in  reply  to  a  committee 
from  the  Evangelical  Lutheran  General 
Synod,  Mr.  Lincoln  spoke,  in  part,  as 
follows : 

You  all  may  recollect  that  in  taking  up  the 
sword  thus  forced  into  our  hands,  this  government 
appealed  to  the  prayers  of  the  pious  and  good, 
and  declared  that  it  placed  its  whole  dependence 
upon  the  favor  of  God.  I  now  humbly  and  rev- 
erently, in  your  presence,  reiterate  the  acknowl- 
edgment of  that  dependence,  not  doubting  that, 
if  it  shall  please  the  Divine  Being  who  determines 
the  destinies  of  nations,  this  shall  remain  a  united 
people,  and  that  they  will,  humbly  seeking  the 
Divine  guidance,  make  their  prolonged  national 
existence  a  source  of  new  benefits  to  themselves 
and  their  successors,  and  to  all  classes  and  con- 
ditions of  mankind.* 

SPEECH  TO  INDIANA  REGIMENT 
May  15,  1862,  in  a  speech  to  the  12th 
Indiana  Regiment,  Mr.  Lincoln  closed  by 
saying,  "The  thanks  of  the  nation  will 
follow  you,  and  may  God's  blessing  rest 
upon  you  now  and  forever."* 


88  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1862 

His  GREAT  FAITH 

EX-SENATOR  JAMES  F.  WILSON,  of  Iowa, 
relates  an  account  of  a  visit  which  he  with 
several  other  gentlemen  made  upon  Presi- 
dent Lincoln  in  June,  1862.  Slavery  and 
the  war  situation  were  freely  discussed. 
Mr.  Lincoln  sat  quietly  in  his  chair,  listen- 
ing to  what  different  ones  had  to  say. 
After  awhile  "He  arose  and  stood  at  his 
extreme  height.  Pausing  a  moment,  his 
right  arm  outstretched  toward  the  gentle- 
man who  had  just  ceased  speaking,  his  face 
aglow  like  the  face  of  a  prophet,  Mr.  Lin- 
coln gave  deliberate  and  emphatic  utter- 
ance to  the  religious  faith  which  sustained 
him  in  his  great  trial  to  which  he  and  the 
country  were  subjected.  He  said: 

"My  faith  is  greater  than  yours.  I  not  only 
believe  that  Providence  is  not  unmindful  of  the 
struggle  in  which  this  nation  is  engaged,  that  if 
we  do  not  do  right,  God  will  let  us  go  our  own  way 
to  ruin;  and  that  if  we  do  right,  He  will  lead  us 
safely  out  of  this  wilderness,  crown  our  arms  with 
victory,  and  restore  our  dissevered  union,  as  you 
have  expressed  your  belief;  but  I  also  believe  He 
will  compel  us  to  do  right,  in  order  that  He  may 
do  these  things,  not  so  much  because  we  desire 
them  as  that  they  accord  with  His  plans  of  deal- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  89 

ing  with  this  nation,  in  the  midst  of  which  He 
means  to  establish  justice.  I  think  that  He  means 
that  we  shall  do  more  than  we  have  yet  done  in 
the  furtherance  of  His  plans  and  He  will  open  the 
way  for  our  doing  it.  I  have  felt  His  hand  upon 
me  in  great  trials  and  submitted  to  His  guidance, 
and  I  trust  that  as  He  shall  farther  open  the  way, 
I  will  be  ready  to  walk  therein,  relying  on  His 
help  and  trusting  in  His  goodness  and  wisdom."51 

ON  THE  LORD'S  SIDE 

One  day  during  the  war  a  minister  said 
in  Lincoln's  presence  that  he  hoped  "the 
Lord"  was  "on  our  side,"  to  which  Mr. 
Lincoln  replied,  "I  am  not  at  all  con- 
cerned about  that,  for  I  know  that  the 
Lord  is  always  on  the  side  of  the  right; 
but  it  is  my  constant  anxiety  and  prayer 
that  I  and  this  nation  should  be  on  the 
Lord's  side."52 

With  emphatic  and  deep  emotion  Mr. 
Lincoln  said  to  a  company  of  clergymen 
who  called  to  pay  their  respects  to  him  in 
the  darkest  days  of  the  war,  "Gentlemen, 
my  hope  of  success  in  this  struggle  rests 
on  that  immutable  foundation,  the  justice 
and  the  goodness  of  God;  and,  when  events 
are  very  threatening  and  prospects  very 


90  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1862 

dark,  I  still  hope  that,  in  some  way  which 
man  cannot  see,  all  will  be  well  in  the  end, 
because  our  cause  is  just  and  God  will  be 
on  our  side."53 

"From  the  day  of  his  election  the  Presi- 
dent was  animated  by  a  profound  convic- 
tion: 'If  we  do  right,  God  will  be  with  us; 
and  if  God  is  with  us,  we  cannot  fail.'  "" 

A  PATIENT  MAN 

In  a  letter  to  Reverdy  Johnson,  July  26, 
1862,  he  says,  "I  am  a  patient  man — 
always  willing  to  forgive  on  the  Christian 
terms  of  repentance,  and  also  to  give 
ample  time  for  repentance."* 

LETTER  TO  COUNT  A.  DE  GASPARIN 

Mr.  Lincoln  never  hesitated  to  acknow- 
ledge his  dependence  upon  God,  whether 
to  people  of  his  own  or  a  foreign  land. 
On  August  4,  1862,  in  reply  to  a  letter 
from  Count  de  Gasparin,  one  of  the 
warmest  friends  of  the  United  States  in 
Europe,  who  had  written  to  the  President 
concerning  the  state  of  the  country,  Mr. 
Lincoln  said,  "I  can  only  say  that  I  have 
acted  upon  my  best  convictions,  without 


1862]  THE  CHRISTIAN  91 

selfishness  or  malice,  and  that  by  the  help 
of  God  I  shall  continue  to  do  so."* 

WRESTLING  IN  PRAYER 
BATTLE  OF  BULL  RUN 
About    September    1,    1862,    after    the 
second  defeat  of  Bull  Run,  Mr.  Lincoln, 
greatly  distressed  on  account  of  the  num- 
ber of  killed  and  wounded,  said  to  a  lady 
friend:  "I  have  done  the  best  I  could.     I 
have  asked  God  to  guide  me,  and  now  I 
must  leave  the  result  with  Him."55 

VISIT   TO   HENRY  WARD   BEECHER 

"Following  the  disaster  of  Bull  Run, 
when  the  strength  and  resources  of  the 
nation  seemed  to  have  been  wasted,  the 
hopes  of  the  North  were  at  their  lowest 
ebb,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  was  well-nigh  over- 
whelmed with  the  awful  responsibility  of 
guiding  the  nation  in  its  life  struggle. 
Henry  Ward  Beecher,  of  Brooklyn,  was, 
perhaps,  more  prominently  associated  with 
the  cause  of  the  North  at  that  time  than 
any  other  minister  of  the  gospel.  He  had 
preached  and  lectured  and  fought  its  bat- 
tles in  pulpit  and  press  all  over  the  country, 


92  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

had  ransomed  slaves  from  his  pulpit,  and 
his  convictions  and  feelings  were  every- 
where known. 

"Late  one  evening  a  stranger  called  at 
his  home  and  asked  to  see  him.  Mr. 
Beecher  was  working  alone  in  his  study, 
as  was  his  custom,  and  this  stranger  re- 
fused to  send  up  his  name,  and  came 
muffled  in  a  military  cloak  which  com- 
pletely hid  his  face.  Mrs.  Beecher's  sus- 
picions were  aroused,  and  she  was  very 
unwilling  that  he  should  have  the  inter- 
view which  he  requested,  especially  as  Mr. 
Beecher's  life  had  been  frequently  threat- 
ened by  sympathizers  with  the  South. 
The  latter,  however,  insisted  that  his 
visitor  be  shown  up.  Accordingly,  the 
stranger  entered,  the  doors  were  shut,  and 
for  hours  the  wife  below  could  hear  their 
voices  and  their  footsteps  as  they  paced 
back  and  forth.  Finally,  toward  midnight, 
the  mysterious  visitor  went  out,  still 
muffled  in  his  cloak,  so  that  it  was  im- 
possible to  gain  any  idea  of  his  features. 

"The  years  went  by,  the  war  was  fin- 
ished, the  President  had  suffered  martyr- 
dom at  his  post,  and  it  was  not  until 


THE  CHRISTIAN  93 

shortly  before  Mr.  Beecher's  death,  over 
twenty  years  later,  that  he  made  known 
that  the  mysterious  stranger  who  had 
called  on  that  stormy  night  was  Abraham 
Lincoln.  The  stress  and  strain  of  those 
days  and  nights  of  struggle,  with  all  the 
responsibilities  and  sorrows  of  a  nation 
fighting  for  its  life  resting  upon  him,  had 
broken  his  strength,  and  for  a  time  under- 
mined his  courage.  He  had  traveled  alone 
in  disguise  and  at  night  from  Washington 
to  Brooklyn,  to  gain  the  sympathy  and 
help  of  one  whom  he  knew  as  a  man  of 
God,  engaged  in  the  same  great  battle  in 
which  he  was  the  leader.  Alone  for  hours 
that  night,  like  Jacob  of  old,  the  two  had 
wrestled  together  in  prayer  with  the  God 
of  battles  and  the  Watcher  over  the  right 
until  they  had  received  the  help  which  He 
had  promised  to  those  that  seek  His  aid." 

The  story  of  this  most  remarkable  inci- 
dent was  first  given  to  the  public  by  Mr. 
Samuel  Scoville,  Jr.,  of  Philadelphia,  a 
grandson  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  who 
heard  it  from  Mrs.  Beecher  herself.58 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1862 


PRELIMINARY  PROCLAMATION 
WILL  DO  GOD'S  WILL. 

On  the  13th  of  September,  1862,  a  dele- 
gation of  Chicago  ministers,  representing 
all  religious  denominations,  called  upon 
President  Lincoln  to  urge  him  to  issue  a 
Proclamation  of  Emancipation. 

In  his  reply  Mr.  Lincoln  began  by  say- 
ing: "The  subject  presented  in  the  memo- 
rial is  one  upon  which  I  have  thought  much 
for  weeks  past,  and  I  may  even  say  for 
months.  I  am  approached  with  the  most 
opposite  opinions  and  advice,  and  that  by 
religious  men  who  are  equally  certain  that 
they  represent  the  divine  will.  I  am  sure 
that  either  the  one  or  the  other  class  is 
mistaken  in  their  belief,  and  perhaps  in 
some  respects  both.  I  hope  it  will  not  be 
irreverent  for  me  to  say  that  if  it  is  prob- 
able that  God  would  reveal  His  will  to 
others  on  a  point  so  connected  with  my 
duty,  it  might  be  supposed  He  would 
reveal  it  directly  to  me;  for,  unless  I  am 
more  deceived  in  myself  than  I  often  am, 


1862]  THE  CHRISTIAN  95 

it  is  my  earnest  desire  to  know  the  will  of 
Providence  in  this  matter.  And  if  I  can 
learn  what  it  is,  I  will  do  it."  After  a 
lengthy  discussion  of  the  subject,  he  said 
in  closing,  "I  can  assure  you  that  the  sub- 
ject is  on  my  mind,  by  day  and  night, 
more  than  any  other.  Whatever  shall 
appear  to  be  God's  will  I  will  do."* 

HIS  MIND   MADE   UP 

The  lady  who  was  staying  at  the  White 
House  as  a  nurse  says:  "Riding  down  from 
the  Soldiers'  Home,  or  the  President's 
summer  residence,  he  told  me  of  the 
struggle  he  had  in  his  mind,  and  had 
succeeded,  in  regard  to  emancipating  so 
many  of  that  despised  race,  the  blacks, 
and,  said  he,  *I  have  made  up  my  mind 
with  God's  help  to  set  them  free,  for  the 
time  has  come,  and  there  will  never  be  a 
better  time  than  now,  and  I  will  do  the 
best  I  can,  trusting  in  God.'  "" 

COVENANT   WITH   GOD 

MR.  FRANK  B.  CARPENTER,  the  artist, 
says  that  Secretary  Chase  told  him  that 
immediately  after  the  battle  of  Antietam, 


96  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1862 

September  17,  and  just  before  the  issue 
of  the  preliminary  proclamation,  Mr.  Lin- 
coln called  a  meeting  of  his  Cabinet,  on 
September  22,  1862,  to  consider  the  issuing 
of  his  Emancipation  Proclamation.  He 
began  by  saying:  "The  time  for  the  annun- 
ciation of  the  emancipation  policy  can  be 
no  longer  delayed.  Public  sentiment  will 
sustain  it,  many  of  my  warmest  friends 
and  supporters  demand  it,  and  I  have 
promised  my  God  that  I  will  do  it."  This 
last  was  said  in  a  low  and  reverent  tone. 
Secretary  Chase  asked  if  he  correctly  un- 
derstood the  last  sentence.  Mr.  Lincoln 
replied:  "7  made  a  solemn  vow  before  God, 
that  if  General  Lee  were  driven  back  from 
Pennsylvania,  I  would  crown  the  result  by 
the  declaration  of  freedom  to  the  slaves."™ 

NO   MISTAKE 

September  24,  1862,  two  days  after  the 
.preliminary  proclamation,  a  large  body  of 
men  assembled  before  the  White  House 
to  serenade  the  President.  Alluding  to 
the  proclamation,  Mr.  Lincoln  said:  "What 
I  did,  I  did  after  a  very  full  deliberation, 
and  under  a  heavy  and  solemn  sense  of 


1862]  THE  CHRISTIAN  97 

responsibility.     I  can  only  trust  in  God 
I  have  made  no  mistake."* 


REPLY  TO  QUAKERS 

September  28(?),  1862,  in  repl/  to  an 
address  from  the  Society  of  Friends  de- 
livered to  him  at  the  White  House  by  a 
deputation  headed  by  Mrs.  Eliza  P. 
Gurney,  Mr.  Lincoln  said: 

I  am  glad  of  this  interview,  and  glad  to  know 
that  I  have  your  sympathy  and  prayers.  We  are 
indeed  going  through  a  great  trial — a  fiery  trial. 
In  the  very  responsible  position  in  which  I  happen 
to  be  placed,  being  a  humble  instrument  in  the 
hands  of  our  Heavenly  Father,  as  I  am,  and  as  we 
all  are,  to  work  out  His  great  purposes,  I  have 
desired  that  all  my  works  and  acts  may  be  accord- 
ing to  His  will,  and  that  it  might  be  so,  I  have 
sought  His  aid;  but  if,  after  endeavoring  to  do 
my  best  in  the  light  which  He  affords  me,  I  find 
my  efforts  fail,  I  must  believe  that  for  some  pur- 
pose unknown  to  me,  He  wills  it  otherwise.  If 
I  had  had  my  way,  this  war  would  never  have 
been  commenced.  If  I  had  been  allowed  my  way, 
this  war  would  have  been  ended  before  this;  but 
we  find  it  still  continues,  and  we  must  believe 
that  He  permits  it  for  some  wise  purpose  of  His 
own,  mysterious  and  unknown  to  us;  and  though 
with  our  limited  understandings  we  may  not  be 


98  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1862 

able  to  comprehend  it,  yet  we  cannot  but  believe 
that  He  who  made  the  world  still  governs  it.* 

A  MEDITATION  ON  THE  DIVINE  WILL 
September  30(?),  1862,  "when  every- 
thing looked  dark  and  the  future  of  this 
nation  was  uncertain;  when  men  were 
wrangling  about  methods  of  conducting  the 
war,  and  jealousy  was  rife  in  the  army, 
Mr.  Lincoln  wrote  the  following  medita- 
tion. It  was  not  for  men,  but  it  was  the 
expression  of  a  great  soul  trying  to  bring 
himself  into  perfect  harmony  with  the 
divine": 

The  will  of  God  prevails.  In  great  contests 
each  party  claims  to  act  in  accordance  with  the 
will  of  God.  Both  may  be,  and  one  must  be, 
wrong.  God  cannot  be  for  and  against  the  same 
thing  at  the  same  time.  In  the  present  civil  war 
it  is  quite  possible  that  God's  purpose  is  something 
different  from  the  purpose  of  either  party;  and 
yet  the  human  instrumentalities,  working  just  as 
they  do,  are  of  the  best  adaptation  to  effect  His 
purpose.  I  am  almost  ready  to  say  this  is  prob- 
ably true;  that  God  wills  this  contest,  and  wills 
that  it  shall  not  end  yet.  By  His  mere  great  power 
on  the  minds  of  the  now  contestants,  he  could  have 
either  saved  or  destroyed  the  Union  without  a 
human  contest.  Yet  the  contest  began.  And, 


1862]  THE  CHRISTIAN  99 

having  begun,  He  could  give  the  final  victory  to 
either  side  any  day.     Yet  the  contest  proceeds.* 

LINCOLN  AND  THE  SABBATH 

On  November  15,  1862,  President  Lin- 
coln shows  his  deepening  religious  convic- 
tion, and  his  comprehensive  faith  in  the 
fact  that  God  rules  in  the  affairs  of  nations 
as  well  as  of  individuals,  by  his  famous 
"Sunday  Rest  Order": 

The  President,  Commander-in-chief  of  the  Army 
and  Navy,  desires  and  enjoins  the  orderly  observance 
of  the  Sabbath  by  the  officers  and  men  in  the 
military  and  naval  service.  The  importance  for 
man  and  beast  of  the  prescribed  weekly  rest,  the 
sacred  rights  of  Christian  soldiers  and  sailors,  a 
becoming  deference  to  the  best  sentiments  of  a 
Christian  people,  and  a  due  regard  for  the  Divine 
Will,  demand  that  Sunday  labor  in  the  army  and 
navy  be  reduced  to  the  measure  of  strict  necessity. 

The  discipline  and  character  of  the  national 
forces  should  not  suffer,  nor  the  cause  they  defend 
be  imperiled  by  the  profanation  of  the  day  or  name 
of  the  Most  High.  "At  this  time  of  public  dis- 
tress"— adopting  the  words  of  Washington  in  1776 — 
"men  may  find  enough  to  do  in  the  service  of 
God  and  their  Country  without  abandoning  them- 
selves to  vice  and  immorality."  The  first  general 
order  issued  by  the  Father  of  his  Country,  after  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  indicates  the  spirit  in 


100  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1862 

which  our  institutions  were  founded  and  should  ever 
be  defended:  "The  General  hopes  and  trusts  that 
every  officer  and  man  will  endeavor  to  live  and 
act  as  becomes  a  Christian  soldier  defending  the 
dearest  rights  and  liberties  of  his  country."* 

SECOND  ANNUAL  MESSAGE  TO  CONGRESS 

In  his  annual  message  to  Congress,  De- 
cember 1,  1862,  he  begins  by  saying: 

While  it  has  not  pleased  the  Almighty  to  bless 
us  with  a  return  of  peace,  we  can  but  press  on, 
guided  by  the  best  light  He  gives  us,  trusting  that 
in  His  own  good  time  and  wise  way  all  will  be  well. 

After  discussing  the  proposed  proclama- 
tion of  emancipation,  he  said  in  closing: 

We  know  how  to  save  the  Union.  The  world 
knows  we  do  know  how  to  save  it.  We — even  we 
here — hold  the  power  and  bear  the  responsibility. 
In  giving  freedom  to  the  slave,  we  assure  freedom 
to  the  free — honorable  alike  in  what  we  give  and 
what  we  preserve.  We  shall  nobly  save  or  meanly 
lose  the  last,  best  hope  of  earth.  Other  means 
may  succeed;  this  could  not  fail.  The  way  is 
plain,  peaceful,  generous,  just — a  way  which,  if 
followed,  the  world  will  forever  applaud  and  God 
must  forever  bless.* 

CONTROL  OF  A  HIGHER  POWER 
In  the  last  days  of  1862,  when  Mr.  Lin- 
coln was    seriously   contemplating    issuing 


1862]  THE  CHRISTIAN  101 

the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  the  Rev. 
Byron  Sunderland,  D.D.,  pastor  of  the 
First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Washington, 
D.  C.,  which  Mr.  Lincoln  sometimes  at- 
tended, went  with  some  friends  of  the 
President  to  call  upon  him.  In  a  letter 
to  Rev.  J.  A.  Reed,  November  15,  1872, 
Dr.  Sunderland  says  that  the  President 
spoke  for  a  half  hour  and  poured  forth  a 
volume  of  the  deepest  Christian  philosophy 
he  ever  heard.  He  began  by  saying: 

The  ways  of  God  are  mysterious  and  profound 
beyond  all  comprehension — 'Who  by  searching  can 
find  Him  out?'  Now,  judging  after  the  manner 
of  men,  taking  counsel  of  our  sympathies  and 
feelings,  if  it  had  been  left  to  us  to  determine  it, 
we  would  have  had  no  war.  And,  going  further 
back  to  the  occasion  of  it,  we  would  have  had  no 
slavery.  And,  tracing  it  still  further  back,  we 
would  have  had  no  evil.  There  is  the  mystery 
of  the  universe  which  no  man  can  solve,  and  it 
is  at  that  point  that  the  human  understanding 
backs  down.  And  there  is  nothing  left  but  for 
the  heart  of  man  to  take  up  faith  and  believe  and 
trust  where  it  cannot  reason.  Now,  I  believe  we 
are  all  agents  and  instruments  of  Divine  Providence. 
On  both  sides  we  are  working  out  the  will  of  God. 
Yet  how  strange  the  spectacle!  Here  is  one  half 
of  the  nation  prostrated  in  prayer  that  God  will 


102  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1862 

help  them  to  destroy  the  Union  and  build  up  a 
government  upon  the  corner  stone  of  human  bond- 
age. And  here  is  the  other  half  equally  earnest 
in  their  prayers  and  efforts  to  defeat  a  purpose 
which  they  regard  as  so  repugnant  to  their  ideas 
of  human  nature  and  the  rights  of  society,  as  well 
as  liberty  and  independence.  They  want  slavery; 
we  want  freedom.  They  want  a  servile  class;  we 
want  to  make  equality  practical  as  far  as  possible. 
And  they  are  Christians  and  we  are  Christians. 
They  and  we  are  praying  and  fighting  for  results 
exactly  the  opposite.  What  must  God  think  of 
such  a  posture  of  affairs?  There  is  but  one  solu- 
tion— self-deception.  Somewhere  there  is  a  fearful 
heresy  in  our  religion,  and  I  cannot  think  it  lies 
in  the  love  of  liberty  and  in  the  aspirations  of  the 
human  soul. 

What  I  am  to  do  in  the  present  emergency  time 
will  determine.  I  hold  myself  in  my  present  posi- 
tion and  with  the  authority  vested  in  me  as  an 
instrument  of  Providence.  I  have  my  own  views 
and  purposes,  I  have  my  convictions  of  duty,  and 
my  notions  of  what  is  right  to  be  done.  But  I 
am  conscious  every  moment  that  all  I  am  and  all 
I  have  is  subject  to  the  control  of  a  Higher  Power, 
and  that  Power  can  use  me  or  not  use  me  in  any 
manner,  and  at  any  time,  as  in  His  wisdom  and 
might  may  be  pleasing  to  Him. 

Nevertheless,  I  am  no  fatalist.  I  believe  in  the 
supremacy  of  the  human  conscience,  and  that  men 
are  responsible  beings;  that  God  has  a  right  to 


1862-3]  THE  CHRISTIAN  103 

hold  them,  and  will  hold  them,  to  a  strict  personal 
account  for  the  deeds  done  in  the  body.  But, 
sirs,  I  do  not  mean  to  give  you  a  lecture  upon  the 
doctrines  of  the  Christian  religion.  These  are 
simply  with  me  the  convictions  and  realities  of 
great  and  vital  truths,  the  power  and  demonstra- 
tion of  which  I  see  now  in  the  light  of  this  our 
national  struggle  as  I  have  never  seen  before. 
God  only  knows  the  issue  of  this  business.  He 
has  destroyed  nations  from  the  map  of  history 
for  their  sins.  Nevertheless,  my  hopes  prevail 
generally  above  my  fears  for  our  Republic.  The 
times  are  dark,  the  spirits  of  ruin  are  abroad  in 
all  their  power,  and  the  mercy  of  God  alone  can 
save  us.50  » 

"LET  THIS  CUP  PASS" 
MR.  HENRY  C.  WHITNEY,  in  his  Life  on 
the  Circuit  with  Lincoln,  says  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  told  Governor  Edward  Stanley, 
military  governor  of  North  Carolina,  that 
"He  earnestly  and  oft  times  prayed  to  God 
in  these  identical  words:  'Father,  if  it  be 
possible,  let  this  cup  pass  from  me';  but 
in  vain.  Therefore  he  issued  the  Emanci- 
pation Proclamation."80 

EMANCIPATION  PROCLAMATION 
The  Emancipation  Proclamation,  which 
was  given  to  the  world  January  1,  1863, 


104  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1863 

closed  with  this  prayer:  "And  upon  this 
act,  sincerely  believed  to  be  an  act  of 
justice,  warranted  by  the  Constitution, 
upon  military  necessity,  I  invoke  the  con- 
siderate judgment  of  mankind,  and  the 
gracious  favor  of  the  Almighty  God."* 

WORTHY   OF  JESUS   CHRIST 

DR.  DAVID  GREGG  says:  "That  was  an 
act  worthy  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  was  the  act 
of  Jesus  Christ;  for  it  was  the  Spirit  of 
Jesus  Christ  that  filled  the  man  with 
power,  and  that  found  an  outlet  in  Amer- 
ican history  through  the  personality  and 
pen  of  Abraham  Lincoln." 

GRACIOUS   FAVOR   OF   GOD 

January  5,  1863,  in  reply  to  a  letter,  Mr. 
Lincoln  wrote  the  following: 

It  is  most  cheering  and  encouraging  for  me  that 
in  the  efforts  which  I  have  made  and  am  making 
for  the  restoration  of  a  righteous  peace  for  our 
country,  I  am  upheld  and  sustained  by  the  good 
wishes  and  prayers  of  God's  people.  No  one  is 
more  deeply  than  myself  aware  that  without  His 
favor  our  highest  wisdom  is  but  as  foolishness  and 
that  our  most  strenuous  efforts  would  avail  nothing 
in  the  shadow  of  His  displeasure. 


1863]  THE  CHRISTIAN  105 

I  am  conscious  of  no  desire  for  my  country's 
welfare  that  is  not  in  consonance  with  His  will, 
and  no  plan  upon  which  we  may  not  ask  His  bless- 
ing. It  seems  to  me  that  if  there  be  one  subject 
upon  which  all  good  men  may  unitedly  agree,  it 
is  imploring  the  gracious  favor  of  the  God  of  Na- 
tions upon  the  struggles  our  people  are  making 
for  the  preservation  of  their  precious  birthright  of 
civil  and  religious  liberty.* 

THE  VOICE  OF  GOD 

In  1900,  the  only  living  one  of  seven 
gentlemen  who  called  to  congratulate  Mr. 
Lincoln  on  the  success  of  our  arms  after 
he  had  signed  the  Emancipation  Procla- 
mation, stated  that  Mr.  Lincoln  replied  as 
follows:  "It  is  a  great  satisfaction  to  me  to 
feel  that  I  have  the  support  of  the  people 
in  the  great  struggle  to  save  the  Nation's 
life.  I  never  believed  in  slavery,  but  I 
felt  I  was  elected  President  of  both  the 
North  and  the  South.  When  Sumter  was 
fired  upon,  and  I  called  for  seventy -five 
thousand  men,  my  determined  purpose  was 
to  save  the  country  and  slavery,  and  I 
called  for  over  half  a  million  men  with  the 
same  determination.  But,"  said  he  slowly 
and  with  great  emphasis,  "on  many  a  de- 


106  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1863 

feated  field  there  was  a  voice  louder  than 
the  thundering  of  cannon.  It  was  the 
voice  of  God,  crying,  'Let  my  people  go.' 
We  were  all  very  slow  in  realizing  it  was 
God's  voice,  but  after  many  humiliating 
defeats  the  nation  came  to  believe  it  as  a 
great  and  solemn  command.  Great  multi- 
tudes begged  and  prayed  that  I  might 
answer  God's  voice  by  signing  the  Emanci- 
pation Proclamation,  and  I  did  it,  believ- 
ing we  never  should  be  successful  in  the 
great  struggle  unless  we  obeyed  the  Lord's 
command.  Since  that  the  'God  of  Battles' 
has  been  on  our  side."61 

LETTER  TO  THE  REV.  ALEXANDER  REED 

February  22,  1863,  in  a  letter  to  the 
Rev.  Alexander  Reed,  superintendent  of 
the  United  States  Christian  Commission, 
who  invited  Mr.  Lincoln  to  preside  at  a 
meeting  in  the  House  of  Representatives 
on  that  day,  he  said:  "Whatever  shall  be 
sincerely,  and  in  God's  name,  devised  for 
the  good  of  the  soldier  and  seaman  in 
their  hard  spheres  of  duty,  can  scarcely 
fail  to  be  blest.  .  .  .  The  birthday  of  Wash- 
ington and  the  Christian  Sabbath  coin- 


1863]  THE  CHRISTIAN  107 

elding  this  year  and  suggesting  together 
the  highest  interests  of  this  life  and  of 
that  to  come,  is  most  propitious  for  the 
meeting  proposed."* 

SECOND  NATIONAL  FAST-DAT 
March  30,  1863,  President  Lincoln  issued 
a  proclamation  appointing  another  national 
fast-day.     It  reads  like  the  deliverance  of 
one  of  the  ancient  prophets,  as  follows: 

Whereas,  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  de- 
voutly recognizing  the  supreme  authority  and  just 
government  of  Almighty  God  in  all  the  affairs  of 
men  and  of  nations,  has  by  a  resolution  requested 
the  President  to  designate  and  set  apart  a  day 
for  national  prayer  and  humiliation: 

And  whereas,  it  is  the  duty  of  nations  as  well 
as  of  men  to  own  their  dependence  upon  the  over- 
ruling power  of  God;  to  confess  their  sins  and  trans- 
gressions in  humble  sorrow,  yet  with  assured  hope 
that  genuine  repentance  will  lead  to  mercy  and 
pardon;  and  to  recognize  the  sublime  truth,  an- 
nounced in  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  proven  by  all 
history,  that  those  nations  only  are  blessed  whose 
God  is  the  Lord : 

And  insomuch  as  we  know  that  by  His  divine 
law  nations,  like  individuals,  are  subject  to  pun- 
ishments and  chastisements  in  this  world,  and 
may  we  not  justly  fear  that  the  awful  calamity 
of  civil  war  which  now  desolates  the  land  may 


108  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1863 

be  but  a  punishment  inflicted  upon  us  for  our  pre- 
sumptuous sins,  to  the  needful  end  of  our  national 
reformation  as  a  whole  people?  We  have  been 
the  recipients  of  the  choicest  bounties  of  Heaven. 
We  have  been  preserved  these  many  years  in 
peace  and  prosperity.  We  have  grown  in  numbers, 
wealth,  and  power  as  no  other  nation  has  ever  grown; 
but  we  have  forgotten  God.  We  have  forgotten 
the  gracious  hand  which  preserved  us  in  peace, 
and  multiplied  and  enriched  and  strengthened  us; 
and  we  have  vainly  imagined,  in  the  deceitfulness 
of  our  hearts,  that  all  these  blessings  were  pro- 
duced by  some  superior  wisdom  and  virtue  of 
our  own.  Intoxicated  with  unbroken  success,  we 
haveJaecome  too  self-sufficient  to  feel  the  necessity 
of  redeeming  and  preserving  grace,  too  proud  to 
pray  to  the  God  who  made  us: 

It  behooves  us,  then,  to  humble  ourselves  before 
the  offended  Power,  and  confess  our  national  sins, 
and  to  pray  for  clemency  and  forgiveness: 

Now,  therefore,  in  compliance  with  the  request 
and  fully  concurring  in  the  views  of  the  Senate. 
I  do  by  this  my  proclamation  designate  and  set 
apart  Thursday,  the  30th  day  of  April,  1863,  as 
a  day  of  national  humiliation,  fasting,  and  prayer. 
And  I  do  hereby  request  all  the  people  to  abstain 
on  that  day  from  their  ordinary  secular  pursuits, 
and  to  unite  at  their  several  places  of  public  wor- 
ship and  their  respective  homes  in  keeping  the 
day  holy  to  the  Lord,  and  devoted  to  the  humble 
discharge  of  the  religious  duties  proper  to  that 


1863]  THE  CHRISTIAN1  109 

solemn  occasion.  All  this  being  done  in  sincerity 
and  truth,  let  us  then  rest  humbly  in  the  hope 
authorized  by  divine  teachings,  that  the  united 
cry  of  the  nation  will  be  heard  on  high,  and  an- 
swered with  blessings  no  less  than  the  pardon  of 
our  national  sins,  and  the  restoration  of  our  now 
divided  and  suffering  country  to  its  former  happy 
condition  of  unity  and  peace.* 

REPLY  TO  PRESBYTERIANS 

May  30(?),  1863,  a  committee  of  sixty- 
five  members  of  the  General  Assembly  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United 
States  of  America,  that  met  in  Philadel- 
phia, visited  the  President,  presenting  him 
with  resolutions  of  indorsement  and  en- 
couragement. In  his  reply,  Mr.  Lincoln 
said: 

Relying,  as  I  do,  upon  Almighty  Power,  and 
encouraged,  as  I  am,  by  the  resolutions  which  you 
have  just  read,  with  the  support  which  I  receive 
from  Christian  men,  I  shall  not  hesitate  to  use  all 
the  means  at  my  control  to  secure  the  termination 
of  this  rebellion,  and  will  hope  for  success.* 

"GoD  WILL  BRING  Us  THROUGH  SAFE" 

MR.  OLIVER  S.  MUNSELL,  April  15,  1893, 
writes  of  an  interview  with  Mr.  Lincoln  at 
the  White  House  in  1863,  about  three 


110  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1863 

weeks  before  the  battle  of  Gettysburg. 
Mr.  Munsell  was  then  president  of  the 
Illinois  Wesleyan  University,  at  Blooming- 
ton.  Mr.  Munsell  asked,  "Will  our  coun- 
try come  through  safe  and  live?"  Mr. 
Lincoln  replied: 

I  do  not  doubt — I  never  have  doubted — that  our 
country  would  finally  come  through  safe  and  un- 
divided. But  do  not  misunderstand  me;  I  do  not 
know  how  it  can  be.  I  do  not  rely  on  the  patriot- 
ism of  our  people,  though  no  people  have  rallied 
round  their  king  as  ours  have  rallied  round  me. 
I  do  not  trust  in  the  bravery  and  devotion  of  the 
boys  in  blue;  God  bless  them  though!  God  never 
gave  a  prince  or  conqueror  such  an  army  as  He  has 
given  to  me.  Nor  yet  do  I  rely  on  the  loyalty  and 
skill  of  our  generals;  though  I  believe  we  have 
the  best  generals  in  the  world  at  the  head  of  our 
armies.  But  the  God  of  our  fathers,  who  raised 
up  this  country  to  be  the  refuge  and  asylum  of 
the  oppressed  and  downtrodden  of  all  nations, 
will  not  let  it  perish  now.  I  may  not  live  to  see  it, 
and  [he  added  after  a  moment's  pause]  I  do  not 
expect  to  live  to  see  it,  but  God  will  bring  us  through 
safe. 

"When  he  finished  there  was  silence  that 
could  be  felt.  I  do  not  often  weep  at 
human  words,  but  then  my  eyes  were  wet 
with  tears  and  I  felt  humbled  in  the  pres- 


1863]  THE  CHRISTIAN  111 

ence  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  sublime  faith  in  'the 
God  of  Battles.'  "62 

ANNOUNCEMENT  OF  GETTYSBURG  VICTORY 

July  4,  1863,  announcing  news  from 
Gettysburg,  with  characteristic  reverence 
he  closed  by  expressing  his  desire  "That  on 
this  day  He  whose  will,  not  ours,  should 
ever  be  done  be  everywhere  remembered 
and  reverenced  with  profoundest  grati- 
tude."* 


118  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


A  PRAYING  PRESIDENT 

THE  BATTLE  OF   GETTYSBURG 

GENERAL  JAMES  F.  RUSLING,  of  Trenton, 
New  Jersey,  relates  a  significant  conversa- 
tion which  he  heard  on  Sunday,  July  5, 
1863,  in  the  room  in  Washington  where 
General  Sickles  lay  wounded,  just  after  the 
great  victory  at  Gettysburg.  In  reply  to  a 
question  from  General  Sickles  whether  or 
not  the  President  was  anxious  about  the 
battle  at  Gettysburg,  Lincoln  gravely  said, 
"No,  I  was  not;  some  of  my  Cabinet  and 
many  others  in  Washington  were,  but  I  had 
no  fears."  General  Sickles  inquired  how 
this  was,  and  seemed  curious  about  it.  Mr. 
Lincoln  hesitated,  but  finally  replied :  "Well, 
I  will  tell  you  how  it  was.  In  the  pinch  of 
your  campaign  up  there,  when  everybody 
seemed  panic-stricken,  and  nobody  could 
tell  what  was  going  to  happen,  oppressed 
by  the  gravity  of  our  affairs,  I  went  to  my 
room  one  day,  and  I  locked  the  door,  and 
got  down  on  my  knees  before  Almighty 
God,  and  prayed  to  Him  mightily  for  vie- 


A  PRATING  PRESIDENT 
GEN.  JAMES  F.  RUSLINO,  of  Trenton,  ».  J.,  relate*  a  elgnl- 

0-~^.r  leant  conversation  which  he  heard  on  Sunday,  July  6,  1869,  in 

'  *^-£- 

"room  in  Washington  where  Gen.  Sickles  lay  wounded.  Just  after  the 

.JL*~  v^: 

-"C great  victory  at  Gettysburg.       In  reply  to  a  question  from  Gen. 
j^|SickleB  whether  or  not  the  President  was  anxious  about  the  battle 

"-'Hat  Gettysburg,  Lincoln  gravely  said,  "Ho,  I  was  not)  some  of  my 

*•"? 

cabinet  and  many  others  in  Washington  were,  but  I  had  no  feare.*  ""^T55  'J 

•n.  Sickles  inquired  bow  this  wae,  and  seemed  curious  about  It.  «-r'7i 


Mr.  Lincoln  hesitated,  but  finally  replied  t  "Well,  I  will  tell  y 
how  it  was.  In  the  pinch  of  your  campaign  up  there,  when  every- 


1  «i 


^ 


body  eeemed  panic-stricken,  and  nobody  could  tell  what  was  going  C  ^* 
to  happen,  oppressed  by  the  gravity  of  our  affairs,  I  went  to  my  <T""«x 
room  one  day,  and  looked  the  door,  and  got  down  on  my  knees  be- 
fore Almighty  God,  and  prayed  to  Hla  mightily  for  victory  at 
Gettysburg.  I  told  HIM  that  this  was  Bis  war,  and  our  cause  Bis 
cause,  but  we  couldn't  stand  another  Frederloksburg  or  Chancellory 
vllle.   And  I  then  and  there  made  a  solemn  vow  to  Almighty  God,  ^ 
that  if  Be  would  stand  by  our  boys  at  Gettysburg,  I  would  stand 
by  Him.   And  Be  did  aland  by  you  boys,  and  I  will  stand  by  Him 
And  after  that  (I  don't  know  how  it  was,  and  I  can't  explain  It),  j( 
soon  a  sweet  comfort  crept  into  my  soul  that  God  Almighty  bad 
taken  the  whole  business  into  His  own  bands  and  that  things  would,..  * 
go  all  right  at  Gettysburg.  •  And  that  is  why  I  had  no  fears  abouvV 
you.*   Asked  concerning  Vloksburg,  the  news  of  wbloh  victory  bad  !< 
not  yet  reached  him,  he  said,  "I  have  been  praying  for  Vloksburg   / 
also,  and  believe  our  Heavenly  Father  is  going  to  give  us  victory 
there,  too.*   Of  course ,  be  did  cot  know  that  Vloksburg  bad  al- 
ready surrendered  the  day  before.  Gen.  Buallng  saya  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  spoke  'solemnly  and  pathetically,  as  if  from,  the  depth 
of  his  heart,*  and  that  hi  a  manner  was  deeply  touching. 


FACSIMILE  OF  INDORSEMENT  OF  STORY   OF  MR.  LINCOLN  PRATING  OVER 
BATTLE  OF  GETTYSBURG 

The  author  submitted  his  MS.  to  General  Rusling  and  General  Sickles,  both  of  whom 
wrote  an  indorsement  on  the  margin  of  the  MS.,  as  follows: 

"I  certify  that  this  statement  of  a  conversation  between  President  Lincoln  and  General 
Sickles,  in  my  presence,  at  Washington,  D.  C.,  July  5,  1863,  relating  to  Gettysburg,  ia 
correct  and  true.  JAMES  F.  RUBI.ING,  Trenton,  N.  J.,  Feb.  17,  1910. 

"I  hereby  certify  that  the  foregoing  statement  by  General  Rusling  is  true  in  substance. 
I  know  from  my  intimate  acquaintance  with  .President  Lincoln  that  he  was  a  religious  man 
— God-fearing  and  God-loving  ruler.  D.  E.  SICKLES,  Major  General  U.  S.  Army,  Ret'd, 
New  York,  Feb.  11,  1911."  113 


114  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1863 

tory  at  Gettysburg.  I  told  Him  that  this 
was  His  war,  and  our  cause  His  cause,  but 
we  couldn't  stand  another  Fredericksburg 
or  Chancellorsville.  And  I  then  and  there 
made  a  solemn  vow  to  Almighty  God,  that 
if  He  would  stand  by  our  boys  at  Gettys- 
burg, I  would  stand  by  Him.  And  He  did 
stand  by  you  boys,  and  I  will  stand  by 
Him.  And  after  that  (I  don't  know  how 
it  was,  and  I  can't  explain  it),  soon  a  sweet 
comfort  crept  into  my  soul  that  God 
Almighty  had  taken  the  whole  business 
into  his  own  hands  and  that  things  would 
go  all  right  at  Gettysburg.  And  that  is 
why  I  had  no  fears  about  you."  Asked 
concerning  Vicksburg,  the  news  of  which 
victory  had  not  yet  reached  him,  he  said, 
"I  have  been  praying  for  Vicksburg  also, 
and  believe  our  Heavenly  Father  is  going 
to  give  us  victory  there,  too."  General 
Rusling  says  that  Mr.  Lincoln  spoke  "sol- 
emnly and  pathetically,  as  if  from  the 
depth  of  his  heart,"  and  that  his  manner 
was  deeply  touching.63 

PRAYING   FOR  VICTORY 

A  lady  friend  who  was  staying  at  the 


1863]  THE  CHRISTIAN  115 

White  House  says  that  on  July  9,  1863, 
while  sitting  at  the  dinner  table  he  could 
not  eat,  for  he  seemed  so  full  of  trouble  as 
he  said,  "The  battle  of  Port  Hudson  is  now 
going  on,  and  many  lives  will  be  sacrificed 
on  both  sides,  but  I  have  done  the  best  I 
could,  trusting  in  God,  for  if  they  gain  this 
important  point,  we  are  lost;  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  if  we  could  only  gain  it  we 
shall  have  gained  much;  and  I  think  we 
shall,  for  we  have  a  great  deal  to  thank 
God  for,  for  we  have  Vicksburg  and  Gettys- 
burg already."  The  lady  said,  "Mr.  Lin- 
coln, prayer  will  do  what  nothing  else  will; 
can  you  not  pray?"  "Yes,  I  will,"  he  re- 
plied, and  while  the  tears  were  dropping 
from  his  haggard  and  worn  face  he  said, 
"Pray  for  me,"  and  picked  up  a  Bible  and 
went  to  his  room.  "Could  all  the  people  of 
the  nation  have  overheard  the  earnest 
petition  that  went  up  from  that  inner 
chamber  as  it  reached  the  ears  of  the 
nurse,  they  would  have  fallen  upon  their 
knees  with  tearful  and  reverential  sym- 
pathy." That  night  he  received  a  dispatch 
announcing  a  Union  victory.  He  went  di- 
rectly to  his  friend's  room,  his  face  beaming 


116  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1863 

with  joy,  saying:  "Good  news!  Good  news! 
Port  Hudson  is  ours!  The  victory  is  ours, 
and  God  is  good."  When  the  lady  replied, 
"Nothing  like  prayer  in  times  of  trouble," 
Mr.  Lincoln  said,  "Yes,  O  yes — praise — 
prayer  and  praise  go  together."  The  lady 
who  related  the  incident  says,  "I  do  be- 
lieve he  was  a  true  Christian,  though  he 
had  very  little  confidence  in  himself."64 

Ah,  that  was  the  secret  of  his  great- 
ness— no  confidence  in  himself,  but  un- 
bounded confidence  in  God.  Who,  know- 
ing these  incidents,  daresay  that  Lincoln 
was  a  fatalist,  and  had  no  faith  in 
prayer? 

DRIVEN   UPON   HIS  KNEES 

In  all  the  great  emergencies  of  his  closing 
years  Mr.  Lincoln's  reliance  upon  divine 
guidance  and  assistance  was  often  ex- 
tremely touching.  "I  have  been  driven 
many  times  upon  my  knees,"  he  once  re- 
marked to  a  friend,  Mr.  Henry  C.  Whitney, 
"by  the  overwhelming  conviction  that  I 
had  nowhere  else  to  go.  My  own  wisdom, 
and  that  of  all  about  me,  seemed  insuffi- 
cient for  that  day."8i> 


THE  CHRISTIAN  117 

KNELT   IN   PRAYER 

A  minister  of  the  gospel  relates  the  fol- 
lowing: "After  visiting  schools,  and  hold- 
ing meetings  with  the  freed  people,  and 
attending  to  other  religious  service  south 
of  Washington  and  in  that  city,  I  felt  that 
I  must  attend  to  manifest  duty,  and  offer 
a  visit  in  gospel  love  to  our  noble  President; 
it  was  immediately  granted,  and  a  quarter 
past  six  that  evening  was  fixed  as  the  time. 
Under  deep  feeling  I  went.  The  President 
gave  us  a  cordial  welcome,  and  after 
pleasant,  instructive  conversation,  during 
which  he  said,  in  reference  to  the  freed- 
men,  'If  I  have  been  one  of  the  instruments 
in  liberating  this  long-suffering,  down- 
trodden people,  I  thank  God  for  it' — a 
precious  covering  spread  over  us.  The 
good  man  rested  his  head  upon  his  hand, 
and  under  a  precious,  gathering  influence  I 
knelt  in  solemn  prayer.  He  knelt  close 
beside  me,  and  I  felt  that  his  heart  went 
with  every  word  as  utterance  was  given. 
I  afterward  addressed  him,  and  when  we 
arose  to  go,  he  shook  my  hand  heartily, 
and  thanked  me  for  the  visit."66 


118  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

A   PASTORAL   CALL 

A  minister  from  a  little  village  in  Central 
New  York  went  with  his  congressman  to 
the  White  House  to  call  on  Mr.  Lincoln. 
After  the  introduction  the  congressman 
withdrew,  leaving  Mr.  Lincoln  and  the 
minister  alone.  The  minister  said:  "I 
have  only  come  to  say  that  the  loyal  peo- 
ple are  sustaining  you  and  will  continue  to 
do  so.  We  are  giving  you  all  that  we  have 
— the  lives  of  our  sons  as  well  as  our  con- 
fidence and  our  prayers.  You  must  know 
that  no  pious  father  or  mother  ever  kneels 
in  prayer  these  days  without  asking  God  to 
give  you  strength  and  wisdom." 

The  tears  filled  Lincoln's  eyes  as  he 
thanked  his  visitor  and  said:  "But  for  those 
prayers  I  should  have  faltered  and  perhaps 
failed  long  ago.  Tell  every  father  and 
mother  you  know  to  keep  on  praying  and 
I  will  keep  on  fighting,  for  I  am  sure  that 
God  is  on  our  side." 

As  the  clergyman  started  to  leave  the 
room,  Lincoln  held  him  by  the  hand  and 
said,  "I  suppose  I  may  consider  this  a  sort 
of  pastoral  call." 


THE  CHRISTIAN  119 

"Yes,"  replied  the  clergyman. 

"Out  in  our  country,"  continued  Lincoln, 
"when  a  parson  made  a  pastoral  call  it  was 
always  the  custom  for  the  folks  to  ask  him 
to  lead  in  prayer,  and  I  should  like  to  ask 
you  to  pray  with  me  to-day;  pray  that  I 
may  have  strength  and  wisdom."  The  two 
men  knelt  side  by  side  before  a  settee  and 
the  minister  offered  the  most  fervent  appeal 
to  the  Almighty  Power  that  ever  fell  from 
his  lips.  As  they  rose,  Lincoln  grasped  his 
visitor's  hand  and  remarked  in  a  satisfied 
sort  of  way, 

"I  feel  better."67 

ASKS  BISHOP   SIMPSON   TO   PRAY 

"One  day,  in  the  darkest  time  of  the 
war,"  said  Bishop  Matthew  Simpson 
to  Chaplain  (afterward  Bishop)  C.  C. 
McCabe,  "I  called  to  see  Mr.  Lincoln. 
We  talked  long  and  earnestly  about  the 
situation.  When  I  rose  to  go  Mr.  Lin- 
coln stepped  to  the  door  and  turned 
the  key  and  said:  'Bishop,  I  feel  the  need 
of  prayer  as  never  before.  Please  pray 
with  me.'  And  so  we  knelt  down  in 
that  room  together  and  all  through  the 


120  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

prayer    the     President     responded      most 
fervently."68 

REQUESTS   MANY   TO   PRAY   FOR   HIM 

MR.  JOHN  G.  NICOLAY,  his  private  secre- 
tary, says:  "Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  praying 
man;  I  know  that  to  be  a  fact.  And  I  have 
heard  him  request  people  to  pray  for  him. 
.  .  .  Many  a  time  I  have  heard  Mr.  Lincoln 
ask  ministers  and  Christian  women  to  pray 
for  him."69 

PRAYS   WITH   SERVANTS 

A  Negro  clergyman  writes  of  a  visit  to 
the  colored  servants  at  the  White  House, 
in  which  he  says:  "In  the  year  1865,  while 
a  chaplain  at  Freedmen's  Village,  on  Ar- 
lington Heights,  after  the  assassination,  but 
three  weeks  before  Mrs.  Lincoln  left  the 
White  House,  I  dined  with  the  servants 
employed  at  the  house,  some  of  whom  had 
been  engaged  in  personal  attendance  upon 
Mr.  Lincoln.  My  object  was  really  to 
know  more  about  him  whose  memory  is 
still  dear  to  me.  I  asked  the  servants  how 
Mr.  Lincoln  treated  them.  I  was  told 
that  frequently,  late  at  night,  Mr.  Lincoln 
came  down  stairs  to  teach  them  to  read, 


1863]  THE  CHRISTIAN 

and  often  took  such  occasions  to  draw 
their  thoughts  toward  the  Saviour  of  all 
mankind.  He  also  often  prayed  with 
them."70 

DAILY   PRAYER 

"Mr.  Lincoln  said  that  after  he  went  to 
the  White  House  he  kept  up  the  habit  of 
daily  prayer."71 

"As  a  child,  in  a  dark  and  stormy  night, 
on  a  rugged  way  catches  hold  of  the  hand 
of  its  father  for  guidance  and  support, 
Lincoln  clung  by  faith  to  the  hand  of" 
his  Heavenly  Father,  "and  moved  calmly 
through  the  gloom." 

AMBASSADOR  OF  CHRIST 
He  always  welcomed  the  visits  of  minis- 
ters, and  regarded  their  calling  as  the 
highest.  Once  he  remarked  to  Father 
Chiniquy,  "There  is  nothing  as  great  under 
heaven  as  to  be  an  ambassador  of  Christ."72 

THE  PROVIDENCE  OF  GOD 
It  is  well  known  that  Mr.  Lincoln  seldom 
made  even  a  short  speech  after  he  was 
elected  President  without  referring  to  the 
omnipotence  and  providence  of  God.  On 
the  evening  of  July  7,  1863,  a  large  number 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1863 

of  citizens  called  at  the  White  House  to 
serenade  the  President.  Mr.  Lincoln  made 
a  speech  of  only  fifteen  sentences,  in  two 
of  which  his  faith  in  God  is  expressly 
stated:  "Fellow  citizens:  I  am  very  glad 
indeed  to  see  you  to-night,  and  yet  I 
will  not  say  I  thank  you  for  this  call; 
but  I  do  most  sincerely  thank  Almighty 
God  for  the  occasion  on  which  you  have 
called."  Then,  referring  to  John  Adams 
and  Thomas  Jefferson,  he  said,  "Precisely 
fifty  years  after  they  put  their  hands  to 
the  paper,  it  pleased  Almighty  God  to  take 
both  from  this  stage  of  action."* 


1863]  THE  CHRISTIAN  123 


SECOND  PROCLAMATION  FOR  THANKSGIVING 

Having  twice  called  upon  the  nation  for 
fasting  and  prayer,  when  victories  came 
Mr.  Lincoln  did  not  forget  to  ask  the 
nation  to  set  apart  a  day  for  thanksgiving 
and  praise.  On  July  15,  1863,  he  issued 
the  following  proclamation: 

It  has  pleased  Almighty  God  to  hearken  to  the 
supplication  and  prayers  of  an  afflicted  people, 
and  to  vouchsafe  to  the  army  and  navy  of  the 
United  States  victories  on  land  and  on  sea  so  signal 
and  so  effective  as  to  furnish  reasonable  grounds 
for  augmented  confidence  that  the  union  of  these 
States  will  be  maintained,  their  Constitution  pre- 
served, and  their  peace  and  prosperity  permanently 
restored.  But  these  victories  have  been  accorded 
not  without  sacrifice  of  life,  limb,  health,  and 
liberty,  incurred  by  brave,  loyal,  and  patriotic 
citizens.  Domestic  affliction  in  every  part  of  the 
country  follows  in  the  train  of  these  fearful  be- 
reavements. It  is  meet  and  right  to  recognize  and 
confess  the  presence  of  the  Almighty  Father  and 
the  power  of  his  hand  equally  in  these  triumphs 
and  in  these  sorrows. 

Now,  therefore,  be  it  known  that  I  do  set  apart- 
Thursday,  the  6th  day  of  August  next,  to  be  ob- 


124  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1863 

served  as  a  day  of  national  thanksgiving,  praise, 
and  prayer,  and  I  invite  the  people  of  the  United 
States  to  assemble  on  that  occasion  in  their  custom- 
ary places  of  worship,  and,  in  the  forms  approved 
by  their  own  consciences,  render  the  homage  due 
to  the  Divine  Majesty  for  the  wonderful  things 
He  has  done  in  the  nation's  behalf,  and  invoke  the 
influence  of  His  Holy  Spirit  to  subdue  the  anger 
which  has  produced  and  so  long  sustained  a  needless 
and  cruel  rebellion,  to  change  the  hearts  of  the 
insurgents,  to  guide  the  counsels  of  the  govern- 
ment with  wisdom  adequate  to  so  great  a  national 
emergency,  and  to  visit  with  tender  care  and  con- 
solation throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  our 
land  all  those  who,  through  the  vicissitudes  of 
marches,  voyages,  battles,  and  sieges,  have  been 
brought  to  suffer  in  mind,  body,  or  estate,  and 
finally  to  lead  the  whole  nation  through  the  paths 
of  repentance  and  submission  to  the  Divine  Will 
back  to  the  perfect  enjoyment  of  union  and  fra- 
ternal peace.* 

FIRST  ANNUAL  THANKSGIVING  DAY 

Although  special  thanksgiving  days  have 
been  observed  at  different  times  since  the 
days  of  Plymcfuth  Rock,  our  modern  annual 
Thanksgiving  Day  really  originated  with 
President  Lincoln.  His  proclamation  for 
the  first  regular  Thanksgiving  Day  was 
issued  October  3,  1863,  as  follows.  After 


1863]  THE  CHRISTIAN  125 

reciting  the  blessing  that  God  had  bestowed 
upon  the  nation,  he  continues: 

No  human  counsel  hath  devised,  nor  hath  any 
mortal  hand  worked  out  these  great  things.  They 
are  the  gracious  gifts  of  the  Most  High  God,  who, 
while  dealing  with  us  in  anger  for  our  sins,  hath 
nevertheless  remembered  mercy. 

It  has  seemed  to  me  fit  and  proper  that  they 
should  be  solemnly,  reverently,  and  gratefully  ac- 
knowledged as  with  one  heart  and  one  voice  by 
the  American  people.  I  do,  therefore,  invite  my 
fellow  citizens  in  every  part  of  the  United  States, 
and  also  those  who  are  at  sea  and  those  who  are 
sojourning  in  foreign  lands,  to  set  apart  and  ob- 
serve the  last  Thursday  of  November  next  as  a 
day  of  thanksgiving  and  praise  to  our  beneficent 
Father  who  dwelleth  in  the  heavens.  And  I 
recommend  to  them  that,  while  offering  up  the 
ascriptions  justly  due  Him  for  such  singular  deliv- 
erances and  blessings,  they  do  also,  with  humble 
penitence  for  our  national  perverseness  and  dis- 
obedience, commend  to  His  tender  care  all  those 
who  have  become  widows,  orphans,  mourners,  or 
sufferers  in  the  lamentable  civil  strife  in  which 
we  are  unavoidably  engaged,  and  fervently  implore 
the  interposition  of  the  Almighty  Hand  to  heal 
the  wounds  of  the  nation,  and  to  restore  it,  as 
soon  as  may  be  consistent  with  the  Divine  purposes, 
to  the  full  enjoyment  of  peace,  harmony,  tran- 
quillity, and  union.* 


126  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1863 

DEDICATED  TO  A  GREAT  TASK 

On  November  19,  1863,  at  the  dedica- 
tion of  the  battlefield  of  Gettysburg,  Presi- 
dent Lincoln  closed  his  speech,  "the  most 
sublime  piece  of  literature  in  the  English 
language,"  with  this  memorable  sentence: 

It  is  rather  for  us  to  be  here  dedicated  to  the 
great  task  remaining  before  us — that  from  these 
honored  dead  we  take  increased  devotion  to  that 
cause  for  which  they  gave  the  last  full  measure 
of  devotion;  that  we  here  highly  resolve  that  these 
dead  shall  not  have  died  in  vain;  that  this  nation, 
under  God,  shall  have  a  new  birth  of  freedom; 
and  that  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people, 
and  for  the  people  shall  not  perish  from  the  earth.* 

Of  this  speech  it  has  been  truly  said 
that  "the  thought  and  the  language  are  as 
majestic  as  those  of  the  ancient  prophets." 

INSTRUMENT  OF  PROVIDENCE 
Mr.  Lincoln  regarded  himself  as  only  an 
instrument  in  the  hands  of  Providence, 
and  took  unto  himself  no  credit  for  freeing 
the  slaves.  In  1863,  Colonel  McKaye,  of 
New  York,  and  Robert  Dale  Owen  re- 
turned from  North  Carolina,  where  they 
had  been  sent  to  investigate  the  condition 
of  the  freedmen.  They  were  telling  Mr. 


1863]  THE  CHRISTIAN  127 

Lincoln  how  the  colored  people  regarded 
him.  One  old  man  said  in  meeting:  "Massa 
Linkum,  he  eberywhar.  He  know  ebery- 
ting.  He  walk  de  earf  like  de  Lord."  Lin- 
coln was  greatly  touched,  and  said,  im- 
pressively, "It  is  a  momentous  thing  to  be 
the  instrument,  under  Providence,  of  the 
liberation  of  a  race."78 

CONSTANT  RECOGNITION  OF  GOD 

On  December  7,  1863,  in  making  an- 
nouncement of  Union  success  in  East 
Tennessee,  he  closed  as  follows:  "I  recom- 
mend that  all  loyal  people  do,  on  receipt 
of  this  information,  assemble  at  their 
places  of  worship  and  render  special  homage 
and  gratitude  to  Almighty  God  for  His 
great  advancement  of  the  national  cause."* 

THIRD  ANNUAL  MESSAGE  TO  CONGRESS 

He  begins  his  Annual  Message  to  Con- 
gress, December  8,  1863,  by  saying: 
"Another  year  of  health,  and  of  sufficiently 
abundant  harvests,  has  passed.  For  these, 
and  especially  for  the  improved  condition 
of  our  national  affairs,  our  renewed  and 
profoundest  gratitude  to  God  is  due."* 


128  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1863 

TELEGRAM  TO  GENERAL  GRANT 

A  telegram  to  General  Grant,  December 
8,  1863,  closes  with,  "God  bless  you  all!"* 

A  PARDONING  PRESIDENT 

The  generals  in  the  army  were  greatly 
annoyed  because  Mr.  Lincoln  pardoned  so 
many  of  the  soldiers  who  were  sentenced  to 
be  shot.  Speaking  of  this  matter  on  one 
occasion,  Mr.  Lincoln  said:  "They  say  that 
I  destroy  all  discipline  and  am  cruel  to  the 
army  when  I  will  not  let  them  shoot  a 
soldier  now  and  then.  But  I  cannot  see 
it.  If  God  wanted  me  to  see  it,  he  would 
let  me  know,  and  until  he  does,  I  shall  go 
on  pardoning  and  being  cruel  to  the 
end/'74 

THE  REV.  NEWMAN  HALL,  of  London, 
tells  of  a  conversation  with  an  officer  of 
the  army,  who  said  that  soon  after  he  took 
command  there  were  twenty-four  deserters 
sentenced  by  court-martial  to  be  shot. 
President  Lincoln  refused  to  sign  the  war- 
rants for  their  execution.  The  officer  went 
to  Washington  and  urged  the  President  to 
sign  them,  saying:  "Unless  these  men  are 


1864]  THE  CHRISTIAN  129 

made  an  example  of,  the  army  itself  is  in 
danger.  Mercy  to  the  few  is  cruelty  to 
the  many."  Mr.  Lincoln  replied:  "General, 
there  are  already  too  many  weeping  widows 
in  the  United  States.  For  God's  sake  don't 
ask  me  to  add  to  the  number,  for  I  won't 
do  it."75 

"A  CUP  OF  COLD  WATER" 

The  last  week  in  January,  1864,  the 
Sanitary  Commission  held  a  four  days' 
session  in  Washington,  at  the  conclusion 
of  which  between  forty  and  fifty  of  the 
ladies  went  in  a  body  to  call  upon  the 
President.  As  related  by  one  of  the  ladies 
present,  he  took  each  by  the  hand  in  the 
usual  perfunctory  manner,  until  it  became 
the  turn  of  a  little  old  Quaker  lady  from 
Philadelphia.  While  he  still  held  her  hand, 
she  said  to  him:  "Yes,  Friend  Abraham, 
thee  needs  not  think  thee  stands  alone. 
We  are  all  praying  for  thee.  All  our  hearts, 
the  hearts  of  all  the  people  are  behind  thee, 
and  thee  cannot  fail!  The  Lord  has  ap- 
pointed thee,  the  Lord  will  sustain  thee, 
and  the  people  love  thee.  Yea,  as  no  other 
man  was  ever  loved  before  does  this  people 
love  thee.  We  are  only  a  few  weak  women, 


130  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1861 

but  we  represent  many.  Take  comfort, 
Friend  Abraham,  God  is  with  thee.  The 
people  are  behind  thee." 

"I  know  it,"  replied  Mr.  Lincoln,  the 
great,  soft  voice  rolling  solemnly  and 
sweetly  forth  from  the  trembling  lips;  "I 
know  it.  If  I  did  not  have  that  knowledge 
—it  is  not  hope,  it  is  knowledge,  the 
knowledge  that  God  is  sustaining  and  will 
sustain  me  until  my  appointed  work  is 
done — I  could  not  live.  If  I  did  not  be- 
lieve that  the  hearts  of  loyal  people  were 
with  me,  I  could  not  endure  it.  My  heart 
would  have  broken  long  ago.  It  is  that 
blessed  knowledge  and  that  blessed  belief 
that  holds  me  to  my  work.  This  has  been 
a  bad  day,  and  I  was  almost  overwhelmed 
when  you  came  in.  You  have  given  a 
cup  of  cold  water  to  a  very  thirsty  and 
grateful  man.  Ladies,  you  have  done  me  a 
great  kindness  to-day.  I  knew  it  before. 
I  knew  that  good  men  and  women  were 
praying  for  me,  but  I  was  so  tired  I  had 
almost  forgotten.  God  bless  you  all!"70 

ADDRESS  TO  GENERAL  GRANT 
In  an  address  to  General  Grant,  March 


1864]  THE  CHRISTIAN  131 

9,  1864,  presenting  him  with  the  commis- 
sion of  lieutenant-general,  he  said,  "As  the 
country  herein  trusts  you,  so,  under  God, 
it  will  sustain  you."* 

GOD  BLESS  THE  WOMEN 

On  March  18,  1864,  at  the  close  of  a  fair 
in  the  Patent  Office  at  Washington  for  the 
benefit  of  the  sick  and  wounded  soldiers 
of  the  army,  President  Lincoln  closed  his 
short  speech  as  follows:  "But  I  must  say, 
that  if  all  that  has  been  said  by  orators 
and  poets  since  the  creation  of  the  world 
in  praise  of  women  were  applied  to  the 
women  of  America,  it  would  not  do  them 
justice  for  their  conduct  during  this  war. 
I  will  close  by  saying,  God  bless  the  women 
of  America!"* 

CONTROLLED  BY  EVENTS 
In  a  letter  to  A.  G.  Hodges,  Frankfort, 
Kentucky,  April  4,  1864,  Mr.  Lincoln  says: 

I  claim  not  to  have  controlled  events,  but  con- 
fess plainly  that  events  have  controlled  me.  Now, 
at  the  end  of  three  years'  struggle,  the  nation's 
condition  is  not  what  either  party,  or  any  man, 
desired  or  expected.  God  alone  can  claim  it. 
Whither  it  is  tending  seems  plain.  If  God  now 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1861 

wills  the  removal  of  a  great  wrong,  and  wills  also 
that  we  of  the  North,  as  well  as  you  of  the  South, 
shall  pay  fairly  for  our  complicity  in  that  wrong, 
impartial  history  will  find  therein  new  cause  to 
attest  and  revere  the  justice  and  goodness  of  God.* 

LETTER  TO  MRS.  HORACE  MANN 

The  next  day,  April  5,  1864,  in  answer  to 
a  petition  from  the  children  and  young 
people  of  Concord,  Massachusetts,  for  the 
freeing  of  all  slave  children,  Mr.  Lincoln 
wrote  to  Mrs.  Horace  Mann,  who  for- 
warded the  petition,  as  follows:  "While  I 
have  not  the  power  to  grant  all  they  ask, 
I  trust  they  will  remember  that  God  has, 
and  that,  as  it  seems,  He  wills  to  do  it."* 

LETTER  TO  GENERAL  GRANT 
A  letter  to  General  Grant,  April  30,  1864, 
closes  with  these  words:  "And  now,  with  a 
brave  army  and  a  just  cause,  may  God 
sustain  you."* 

RECOMMENDS  THANKSGIVING  AND  PRAYER 

On  May  9,  1864,  Mr.  Lincoln  issued  a 
recommendation  for  thanksgiving  and 
prayer,  as  follows:  "Enough  is  known  of 
army  operations  within  the  last  five  days 


1864]  THE  CHRISTIAN  133 

to  claim  an  especial  gratitude  to  God, 
while  what  remains  undone  demands  our 
most  sincere  prayers  to,  and  reliance  upon, 
Him  without  whom  all  human  effort  is 
vain.  I  recommend  that  all  patriots,  at 
their  homes,  in  their  places  of  public  wor- 
ship, and  wherever  they  may  be,  unite  in 
common  thanksgiving  and  prayer  to  Al- 
mighty God."* 

GRATEFUL  TO  ALMIGHTY  GOD 

In  a  speech  on  May  9,  1864,  after  the 
Battle  of  the  Wilderness,  in  response  to  a 
serenade  at  the  White  House,  Mr.  Lincoln 
said,  "While  we  are  grateful  to  all  the 
brave  men  and  officers  for  the  events  of 
the  past  few  days,  we  should,  above  all,  be 
very  grateful  to  Almighty  God,  who  gives 
us  victory."* 

GOD  BLESS  THE  METHODIST  CHURCH 

May  18,  1864,  in  a  letter  of  reply  to  a 
deputation  of  ministers  who  presented  to 
him  resolutions  adopted  by  the  Methodist 
General  Conference,  he  said,  "God  bless 
the  Methodist  Church — bless  all  the 


134  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1864 

churches — and    blessed   be    God,   who,   in 
this  our  great  trial  giveth  us  the  churches."* 

REPLY  TO  BAPTISTS 

In  a  letter  to  a  committee  consisting  of 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Ide,  Honorable  J.  R.  Doolittle, 
and  Honorable  A.  Hubbell,  May  30,  1864, 
Mr.  Lincoln  says: 

In  response  to  the  preamble  and  resolutions  of 
the  American  Baptist  Home  Mission  Society,  which 
you  did  me  the  honor  to  present,  I  can  only  thank 
you  for  thus  adding  to  the  effective  and  almost 
unanimous  support  which  the  Christian  com- 
munities are  so  zealously  giving  to  the  country, 
and  to  liberty.  Indeed,  it  is  difficult  to  conceive 
how  it  could  be  otherwise  with  anyone  professing 
Christianity,  or  even  having  ordinary  perceptions 
of  right  and  wrong.  To  read  in  the  Bible,  as  the 
word  of  God  Himself,  that  "In  the  sweat  of  thy 
face  shalt  thou  eat  bread,"  and  to  preach  there- 
from that,  "In  the  sweat  of  other  men's  faces  shalt 
thou  eat  bread,"  to  my  mind  can  scarcely  be  recon- 
ciled with  honest  sincerity.  When  brought  to  my 
final  reckoning  may  I  have  to  answer  for  robbing 
no  man  of  his  goods;  yet  more  tolerable  even  this, 
than  for  robbing  one  of  himself  and  all  that  was 
his.  When,  a  year  or  two  ago,  those  professedly 
holy  men  of  the  South  met  in  the  semblance  of 
prayer  and  devotion,  and,  in  the  name  of  Him 
who  said,  "As  ye  would  all  men  should  do  unto 


1864]  THE  CHRISTIAN  135 

you,  do  ye  even  so  unto  them,"  appealed  to  the 
Christian  world  to  aid  them  in  doing  to  a  whole 
race  of  men  as  they  would  have  no  man  do  unto 
themselves,  to  my  thinking  they  contemned  and 
insulted  God  and  His  church  far  more  than  did 
Satan  when  he  tempted  the  Saviour  with  the 
kingdoms  of  earth.  The  devil's  attempt  was  no 
more  false,  and  far  less  hypocritical.  But  let  me 
forbear,  remembering  it  is  also  written,  "Judge 
not,  lest  ye  be  judged."* 

ASSISTANCE  OF  THE  ALMIGHTY 

To  the  synod  of  the  old-school  Presby- 
terians of  Baltimore,  who  waited  on  him 
in  a  body,  he  said: 

I  saw  upon  taking  my  position  here,  I  was  go- 
ing to  have  an  administration,  if  administration  at 
all,  of  extraordinary  difficulty.  It  was  without 
exception  a  time  of  the  greatest  difficulty  this 
country  ever  saw.  I  was  early  brought  to  a  lively 
reflection  that  nothing  in  my  power  whatever,  or 
others,  to  rely  upon  would  succeed  without  direct 
assistance  of  the  Almighty.  I  have  often  wished 
that  I  was  a  more  devout  man  than  I  am.  Never- 
theless, amid  the  greatest  difficulties  of  my  adminis- 
tration, when  I  could  not  see  any  other  resort, 
I  would  place  my  whole  reliance  in  God,  knowing 
all  would  go  well  and  that  he  would  decide  for 
the  right.77 


136  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1864 


PISGAH  AND  CALVARY 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  often  warned  against 
the  danger  of  assassination.  While  he 
never  showed  any  fear,  there  is  no  doubt 
that,  from  the  day  of  his  election  to  the 
day  of  his  death,  he  not  only  believed  that 
it  might  be,  but  actually  expected  it. 

THE  REV.  FATHER  CHARLES  CHINIQUY, 
who  had  known  Mr.  Lincoln  in  Illinois, 
visited  him  at  the  White  House  in  August, 
1861;  June,  1862;  and  June,  1864,  for  the 
express  purpose  of  telling  him  what  he  had 
learned  of  plans  to  assassinate  him.  The 
last  visit  was  on  June  9,  1864,  when  he 
spent  considerable  time  with  him.  After 
Father  Chiniquy  had  explained  all,  Mr. 
Lincoln  replied  in  part  as  follows: 

You  are  not  the  first  to  warn  me  against  the 
dangers  of  assassination.  My  ambassadors  in 
Italy,  France,  and  England,  as  well  as  Professor 
Morse,  have,  many  times,  warned  me  against  the 
plots  of  murderers  whom  they  have  detected  in 
those  different  countries.  But  I  see  no  other 
safeguard  against  these  murderers,  but  to  be  always 


1864]  THE  CHRISTIAN  137 

ready  to  die,  as  Christ  advises  it.  As  we  must  all 
die  sooner  or  later,  it  makes  very  little  difference 
to  me  whether  I  die  from  a  dagger  plunged  through 
the  heart  or  from  an  inflammation  of  the  lungs. 
Let  me  tell  you  that  I  have,  lately,  read  a  message 
in  the  Old  Testament  which  has  made  a  profound, 
and,  I  hope,  a  salutary  impression  on  me.  Here 
is  that  passage. 

The  President  took  his  Bible,  opened  it 
at  the  third  chapter  of  Deuteronomy,  and 
read  from  the  22d  to  the  27th  verse: 

"22  Ye  shall  not  fear  them:  for  the  Lord  your 
God  he  shall  fight  for  you. 

"23  And  I  besought  the  Lord  at  that  time, 
saying, 

"24  O  Lord  God,  thou  hast  begun  to  shew  thy 
servant  thy  greatness,  and  thy  mighty  hand:  for 
what  God  is  there  in  heaven  or  in  earth,  that  can 
do  according  to  thy  works,  and  according  to  thy 
might? 

"25  I  pray  thee,  let  me  go  over,  and  see  the 
good  land  that  is  beyond  Jordan,  that  goodly 
mountain,  and  Lebanon. 

"26  But  the  Lord  was  wroth  with  me  for  your 
sakes,  and  would  not  hear  me:  and  the  Lord  said 
unto  me,  Let  it  suffice  thee;  speak  no  more  unto 
me  of  this  matter. 

"27  Get  thee  up  into  the  top  of  Pisgah,  and 
lift  up  thine  eyes  westward,  and  northward,  and 


138  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1864 

southward,  and  eastward,  and  behold  it  with  thine 
eyes;  for  thou  shalt  not  go  over  this  Jordan." 

After  the  President  had  read  these  words 
with  great  solemnity,  he  added: 

My  dear  Father  Chiniquy,  let  me  tell  you  that 
I  have  read  these  strange  and  beautiful  words 
several  times,  these  last  five  or  six  weeks.  The 
more  I  read  them,  the  more,  it  seems  to  me,  that 
God  has  written  them  for  me  as  well  as  for 
Moses. 

Has  He  not  taken  me  from  my  poor  log  cabin, 
by  the  hand,  as  He  did  of  Moses  in  the  reeds  of 
the  Nile,  to  put  me  at  the  head  of  the  greatest  and 
most  blessed  of  modern  nations  just  as  He  put 
that  prophet  at  the  head  of  the  most  blessed  nation 
of  ancient  times?  Has  not  God  granted  me  a 
privilege,  which  was  not  granted  to  any  living  man, 
when  I  broke  the  fetters  of  4,000,000  of  men,  and 
made  them  free?  Has  not  our  God  given  me  the 
most  glorious  victories  over  my  enemies?  Are  not 
the  armies  of  the  Confederacy  so  reduced  to  a 
handful  of  men,  when  compared  to  what  they  were 
two  years  ago,  that  the  day  is  fast  approaching 
when  they  will  have  to  surrender? 

Now,  I  see  the  end  of  this  terrible  conflict,  with 
the  same  joy  of  Moses,  when  at  the  end  of  his 
trying  forty  years  in  the  wilderness;  and  I  pray 
my  God  to  grant  me  to  see  the  days  of  peace  and 
untold  prosperity,  which  will  follow  this  cruel  war, 
as  Moses  asked  God  to  see  the  other  side  of  Jordan, 


1864]  THE  CHRISTIAN  139 

and  enter  the  Promised  Land.  But,  do  you  know, 
that  I  hear  in  my  soul,  as  the  voice  of  God,  giving 
me  the  rebuke  which  was  given  to  Moses? 

Yes!  every  time  that  my  soul  goes  to  God  to 
ask  the  favor  of  seeing  the  other  side  of  Jordan, 
and  eating  the  fruits  of  that  peace,  after  which 
I  am  longing  with  such  an  unspeakable  desire,  do 
you  know  that  there  is  a  still  but  solemn  voice 
which  tells  me  that  I  will  see  those  things  only 
from  a  long  distance,  and  that  I  will  be  among  the 
dead  when  the  nation,  which  God  granted  me  to 
lead  through  those  awful  trials,  will  cross  the  Jordan, 
and  dwell  in  that  Land  of  Promise,  where  peace, 
industry,  happiness,  and  liberty  will  make  every 
one  happy;  and  why  so?  Because  He  has  already 
given  me  favors  which  He  never  gave,  I  dare  say, 
to  any  man  in  these  latter  days. 

Why  did  God  Almighty  refuse  to  Moses  the 
favor  of  crossing  the  Jordan,  and  entering  the 
Promised  Land?  It  was  on  account  of  the  nation's 
sins!  That  law  of  Divine  retribution  and  justice, 
by  which  one  must  suffer  for  another,  is  surely  a 
terrible  mystery.  But  it  is  a  fact  which  no  man 
who  has  any  intelligence  and  knowledge  can  deny. 
Moses,  who  knew  that  law,  though  he  probably 
did  not  understand  it  better  than  we  do,  calmly 
says  to  his  people:  "God  was  wroth  with  me  for 
your  sakes." 

But,  though  we  do  not  understand  that  mysteri- 
ous and  terrible  law,  we  find  it  written  in  letters 
of  tears  and  blood  wherever  we  go.  We  do  not 


140  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1864* 

read  a  single  page  of  history  without  finding  un- 
deniable traces  of  its  existence. 

Where  is  the  mother  who  has  not  shed  real  tears 
and  suffered  real  tortures,  for  her  children's  sake? 

Who  is  the  good  king,  the  worthy  emperor,  the 
gifted  chieftain,  who  has  not  suffered  unspeakable 
mental  agonies,  or  even  death,  for  his  people's 
sake? 

Is  not  our  Christian  religion  the  highest  expres- 
sion of  the  wisdom,  mercy,  and  love  of  God!  But 
what  is  Christianity  if  not  the  very  incarnation  of 
that  eternal  law  of  Divine  justice  in  our  humanity? 

When  I  look  on  Moses,  alone,  silently  dying  on 
the  Mount  Pisgah,  I  see  that  law,  in  one  of  its 
most  sublime  human  manifestations,  and  I  am 
filled  with  admiration  and  awe. 

But  when  I  consider  that  law  of  justice,  and 
expiation  in  the  death  of  the  Just,  the  divine  Son 
of  Mary,  on  the  Mount  of  Calvary,  I  remain  mute 
in  my  adoration.  The  spectacle  of  the  Crucified 
One  which  is  before  my  eyes  is  more  than  sublime, 
it  is  divine!  Moses  died  for  his  People's  sake, 
but  Christ  died  for  the  whole  world's  sake!  Both 
died  to  fulfill  the  same  eternal  law  of  the  Divine 
justice,  though  in  a  different  measure. 

Now,  would  it  not  be  the  greatest  of  honors  and 
privileges  bestowed  upon  me,  if  God  in  His  infinite 
love,  mercy,  and  wisdom  would  put  me  between 
His  faithful  servant,  Moses,  and  His  eternal  Son, 
Jesus,  that  I  might  die  as  they  did,  for  my  nation's 
sake! 


1864-]  THE  CHRISTIAN  141 

My  God  alone  knows  what  I  have  already 
suffered  for  my  dear  country's  sake.  But  my  fear 
is  that  the  justice  of  God  is  not  yet  paid.  When 
I  look  upon  the  rivers  of  tears  and  blood  drawn  by 
the  lashes  of  the  merciless  masters  from  the  veins 
of  the  very  heart  of  those  millions  of  defenseless 
slaves,  these  two  hundred  years;  when  I  remember 
the  agonies,  the  cries,  the  unspeakable  tortures  of 
those  unfortunate  people  to  which  I  have,  to  some 
extent,  connived  with  so  many  others  a  part  of 
my  life,  I  fear  that  we  are  still  far  from  the  com- 
plete expiation.  For  the  judgments  of  God  are 
true  and  righteous. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  Lord  wants  to-day,  as 
He  wanted  in  the  days  of  Moses,  another  victim — 
a  victim  which  He  has  himself  chosen,  anointed 
and  prepared  for  the  sacrifice,  by  raising  it  above 
the  rest  of  His  people.  I  cannot  conceal  from  you 
that  my  impression  is  that  I  am  the  victim.  So 
many  plots  have  already  been  made  against  my 
life,  that  it  is  a  real  miracle  that  they  have  all 
failed.  But  can  we  expect  that  God  will  make  a 
perpetual  miracle  to  save  my  life?  I  believe  not. 

But  just  as  the  Lord  heard  no  murmur  from  the 
lips  of  Moses,  when  He  told  him  that  he  had  to 
die  before  crossing  the  Jordan,  for  the  sins  of  his 
people,  so  I  hope  and  pray  that  He  will  hear  no 
murmur  from  me  when  I  fall  for  my  nation's 
sake. 

The  only  two  favors  I  ask  of  the  Lord  are,  first, 
that  I  may  die  for  the  sacred  cause  in  which  I  am 


142  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [186i 

engaged,  and  when  I  am  the  standard  bearer  of 
the  rights  and  privileges  of  my  country. 

The  second  favor  I  ask  from  God  is  that  my  dear 
son,  Robert,  when  I  am  gone,  will  be  one  of  those 
who  lift  up  that  flag  of  Liberty  which  will  cover 
my  tomb,  and  carry  it  with  honor  and  fidelity  to 
the  end  of  his  life,  as  his  father  did,  surrounded 
by  the  millions  who  will  be  called  with  him  to 
fight  and  die  for  the  defense  and  honor  of  our 
country. 

"Never  had  I  heard  such  sublime  words," 
says  Father  Chiniquy.  "Never  had  I  seen 
a  human  face  so  solemn  and  so  prophet- 
like  as  the  face  of  the  President  when 
uttering  these  things.  Every  sentence  had 
come  to  me  as  a  hymn  from  heaven,  rever- 
berated by  the  echoes  of  the  mountains  of 
Pisgah  and  Calvary.  I  was  beside  myself. 
Bathed  in  tears,  I  tried  to  say  something, 
but  I  could  not  utter  a  word.  I  knew  the 
hour  to  leave  had  come.  I  asked  from 
the  President  permission  to  fall  on  my 
knees  and  pray  with  him  that  his  life 
might  be  spared;  and  he  knelt  with  me. 
But  I  prayed  more  with  my  tears  and  sobs 
than  with  my  words.  Then  I  pressed  his 
hand  on  my  lips  and  bathed  it  with  tears, 
and  with  a  heart  filled  with  an  unspeakable 


1864]  THE  CHRISTIAN  143 

desolation  I  bade  him  adieu.  It  was  for 
the  last  time!  For  the  hour  was  fast  ap- 
proaching when  he  was  to  fall  by  the  hand 
of  an  assassin,  for  his  nation's  sake."78 

ACCEPTED  THE  WAR 
Replying  to  a  toast  at  a  supper  given  in 
his  honor  in  Philadelphia,  June  18,  1864, 
Mr.  Lincoln  said:  "We  accepted  this  war 
for  an  object,  a  worthy  object,  and  the 
war  will  end  when  that  object  is  attained. 
Under  God,  I  hope  that  it  will  never  end 
until  that  time."* 

FESSENDEN'S  DUTY 

In  the  summer  of  1864  Secretary  Chase 
resigned  from  the  Cabinet,  and  Mr.  Lin- 
coln nominated  William  P.  Fessenden  to 
succeed  him.  Mr.  Fessenden  was  not  dis- 
posed to  accept.  On  July  1,  in  a  personal 
interview,  Mr.  Lincoln  said  to  Fessenden: 
"I  believe  that  the  suppression  of  the  re- 
bellion has  been  decreed  by  a  higher  power 
than  any  represented  by  us,  and  that  the 
Almighty  is  using  his  own  means  to  that 
end.  You  are  one  of  them.  It  is  as  much 
your  duty  to  accept  as  it  is  mine  to 
appoint."79 


144  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1864 

NATIONAL  PRAYER  MEETING 

In  compliance  with  a  resolution  adopted 
concurrently  by  the  Senate  and  House  of 
Representatives,  requesting  the  President 
to  appoint  a  day  of  prayer,  Mr.  Lincoln 
issued  the  following  proclamation,  July  7, 
1864.  After  quoting  the  words  of  the 
resolution,  he  continues: 

Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President 
of  the  United  States,  cordially  concurring  with  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States  in  the  penitential 
and  pious  sentiments  expressed  in  the  aforesaid 
resolutions,  and  heartily  approving  of  the  devo- 
tional design  and  purpose  thereof,  do  hereby  ap- 
point the  first  Thursday  of  August  next  to  be 
observed  by  the  people  of  the  United  States  as  a 
day  of  national  humiliation  and  prayer. 

I  do  hereby  further  invite  and  request  the  heads 
of  the  executive  departments  of  this  government, 
together  with  all  legislators,  all  judges  and  magis- 
trates, and  all  other  persons  exercising  authority 
in  the  land,  whether  civil,  military,  or  naval,  and 
all  soldiers,  seamen,  and  marines  in  the  national 
service,  and  all  the  other  loyal  and  law-abiding 
people  of  the  United  States,  to  assemble  in  their 
preferred  places  of  public  worship  on  that  day,  and 
there  and  then  to  render  to  the  Almighty  and  mer- 
ciful Ruler  of  the  Universe  such  homages  and  such 
confessions,  and  to  offer  to  Him  such  supplications, 


1864]  THE  CHRISTIAN  145 

as  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  have,  in  their 
aforesaid  resolution,  so  solemnly,  so  earnestly,  and 
so  reverently  recommended.* 

FOURTH  SPECIAL  THANKSGIVING 

The  national  prayer  meeting  was  fol- 
lowed a  month  later,  September  3,  1864,  by 
a  proclamation  of  thanksgiving,  as  follows: 

The  signal  success  that  Divine  Providence  has 
recently  vouchsafed  to  the  operations  of  the  United 
States  fleet  and  army  in  the  harbor  of  Mobile, 
and  the  reduction  of  Fort  Powell,  Fort  Gaines,  and 
Fort  Morgan,  and  the  glorious  achievements  of 
the  army  under  Major-General  Sherman,  in  the 
State  of  Georgia,  resulting  in  the  capture  of  the 
city  of  Atlanta,  call  for  devout  acknowledgement  to 
the  Supreme  Being  in  whose  hands  are  the  destinies 
of  nations.  It  is  therefore  requested  that  on  next 
Sunday,  in  all  places  of  worship  in  the  United  States, 
thanksgiving  be  offered  to  Him  for  His  mercy  in 
preserving  our  national  existence  against  the  in- 
surgent rebels  who  have  been  waging  a  cruel  war 
against  the  Government  of  the  United  States  for 
its  overthrow;  and  also  that  prayer  be  made  for 
Divine  protection  to  our  soldiers  and  their  leaders 
in  the  field,  who  have  so  often  and  so  gallantly 
periled  their  lives  in  battling  with  the  enemy;  and 
for  blessings  and  comforts  from  the  Father  of 
Mercies  to  the  sick,  wounded,  and  prisoners,  and 
to  the  orphans  and  widows  of  those  who  have 


146  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1864 

fallen  in  the  service  of  their  country,  and  that  He 
will  continue  to  uphold  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  against  all  the  efforts  of  public 
enemies  and  secret  foes.* 

LETTER  TO  A  QUAKERESS 

THE  QUAKERS,  opposed  to  both  war  and 
slavery,  were  much  perplexed  by  the  war, 
and  Mr.  Lincoln  fully  sympathized  with 
them.  He  wrote  the  following  letter  to 
Mrs.  Eliza  P.  Gurney,  an  American  lady 
resident  in  London  and  wife  of  a  wealthy 
Quaker  banker,  Joseph  John  Gurney,  Sep- 
tember 4,  1864: 

My  esteemed  Friend:  I  have  not  forgotten — 
probably  never  shall  forget — the  very  impressive 
occasion  when  yourself  and  friends  visited  me  on 
a  Sabbath  forenoon  two  years  ago.  Nor  has  your 
kind  letter,  written  nearly  a  year  later,  ever  been 
forgotten.  In  all  it  has  been  your  purpose  to 
strengthen  my  reliance  on  God.  I  am  much  in- 
debted to  the  good  Christian  people  of  the  country 
for  their  constant  prayers  and  consolations;  and  to 
no  one  of  them  more  than  to  yourself.  The  pur- 
poses of  the  Almighty  are  perfect,  and  must  prevail, 
though  we  erring  mortals  may  fail  to  accurately 
perceive  them  in  advance.  We  hoped  for  a  happy 
termination  of  this  terrible  war  long  before  this; 
but  God  knows  best  and  ruled  otherwise.  We 


1864]  THE  CHRISTIAN  147 

shall  yet  acknowledge  His  wisdom,  and  our  own 
error  therein.  Meanwhile  we  must  work  earnestly 
in  the  best  light  He  gives  us,  trusting  that  so  work- 
ing still  conduces  to  the  great  ends  He  ordains. 
Surely  He  intends  some  great  good  to  follow  this 
mighty  convulsion,  which  no  mortal  could  make, 
and  no  mortal  could  stay.  Your  people,  the 
Friends,  have  had,  and  are  having,  a  very  great 
trial.  On  principle  and  faith  opposed  to  both  war 
and  oppression,  they  can  only  practically  oppose 
oppression  by  war.  In  this  hard  dilemma  some 
have  chosen  one  horn,  and  some  the  other.  For 
those  appealing  to  me  on  conscientious  grounds, 
I  have  done,  and  shall  do,  the  best  I  could  and 
can,  in  my  own  conscience,  under  my  oath  to  the 
law.  That  you  believe  this,  I  doubt  not,  and  be- 
lieving it,  I  shall  receive  for  my  country  and  my- 
self your  earnest  prayers  to  our  Father  in  Heaven.*80 


148  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1864 


LINCOLN  AND  THE  BIBLE 

PROFITABLY  ENGAGED 
Lincoln's  old  friend,  Joshua  Speed,  tells 
of  a  significant  incident  that  occurred  in 
the  summer  of  1864.  Mr.  Lincoln  and  his 
family  were  staying  at  the  Soldiers'  Home 
for  a  little  while,  and  Mr.  Speed  was  in- 
vited to  spend  the  night  with  them.  As 
he  entered  the  room,  Lincoln  was  sitting 
near  a  window  intently  reading  his  Bible. 
Mr.  Speed  remarked,  "I  am  glad  to  see  you 
so  profitably  engaged."  "Yes,"  said  Lin- 
coln, "I  am  profitably  engaged."  "Well," 
said  Speed,  "if  you  have  recovered  from 
your  skepticism,  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  I 
have  not."  Lincoln,  looking  Speed  ear- 
nestly in  the  face,  and  placing  his  hand  on 
his  shoulder,  said:  "You  ARE  WRONG, 
SPEED.  TAKE  ALL  OF  THIS  BOOK  UPON 
REASON  THAT  YOU  CAN,  AND  THE  BALANCE 
ON  FAITH,  AND  YOU  WILL  LIVE  AND  DIE  A 
HAPPIER  MAN.""  At  this  time  Mr.  Speed 
was  not  a  member  of  any  church.  Later 
he  joined  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  149 

USES  CRUDEN'S  CONCORDANCE 

PROFESSOR  ALEXANDER  WILLIAMSON, 
who  was  for  a  time  a  tutor  in  the  Presi- 
dent's family  in  Washington,  says,  "Mr. 
Lincoln  very  frequently  studied  the  Bible 
with  the  aid  of  Cruden's  Concordance, 
which  lay  on  his  table."82 

His  private  secretary,  John  G.  Nicolay, 
says:  "He  praised  the  simplicity  of  the 
Gospels.  He  often  declared  that  the  Ser- 
mon on  the  Mount  contained  the  essence 
of  all  law  and  justice,  and  that  the  Lord's 
Prayer  was  the  sublimest  composition  in 
human  language."83 

"He  could  repeat  from  memory  whole 
chapters  of  Isaiah,  the  New  Testament, 
and  the  Psalms."84 

"He  could  repeat  hymns  by  the  hun- 
dreds, and  quoted  Dr.  Watts'  and  John 
Wesley's  verses  as  frequently  as  he  did 
Shakespeare."85 

THE  ALMIGHTY  DIRECTS   IN   HUMAN  AFFAIRS 

MR.  L.  E.  CHITTENDEN,  who  was  register 
of  the  treasury  under  President  Lincoln, 
gives  in  his  Recollections  a  most  remark- 
able testimony.  Says  he:  "Lincoln's  calm 


150  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

serenity  at  times  when  others  were  so 
anxious,  his  confidence  that  his  own  judg- 
ment was  directed  by  the  Almighty,  so 
impressed  me  that  I  ventured  to  ask  him 
directly  how  far  he  believed  the  Almighty 
actually  directed  our  national  affairs. 
After  a  considerable  pause,  Lincoln  spoke 
as  follows: 

"  'That  the  Almighty  does  make  use  of 
human  agencies,  and  directly  intervenes  in 
human  affairs,  is  one  of  the  plainest  state- 
ments in  the  Bible.  I  have  had  so  many 
evidences  of  His  direction,  so  many  in- 
stances when  I  have  been  controlled  by 
some  other  power  than  my  own  will,  that 
I  cannot  doubt  that  this  power  comes 
from  above.  I  frequently  see  my  way 
clear  to  a  decision  when  I  am  conscious 
that  I  have  no  sufficient  facts  upon  which 
to  found  it.  But  I  cannot  recall  one  in- 
stance in  which  I  have  followed  my  own 
judgment,  founded  upon  such  a  decision, 
where  the  results  were  unsatisfactory; 
whereas,  in  almost  every  instance  where  I 
have  yielded  to  the  views  of  others,  I  have 
had  occasion  to  regret  it.  I  am  satisfied 
that,  when  the  Almighty  wants  me  to  do, 


THE  CHRISTIAN  151 

or  not  to  do,  a  particular  thing,  he  finds  a 
way  of  letting  me  know  it.  I  am  confident 
that  it  is  his  design  to  restore  the  Union. 
He  will  do  it  in  his  own  good  time.  We 
should  obey  and  not  oppose  his  will.' ' 

"You  speak  with  such  confidence,"  said 
Mr.  Chittenden,  "that  I  would  like  to 
know  how  your  knowledge  that  God  acts 
directly  upon  human  affairs  compares  in 
certainty  with  your  knowledge  of  a  fact 
apparent  to  the  senses — for  example,  the 
fact  that  we  are  at  this  moment  here  in 
this  room." 

"One  is  as  certain  as  the  other,"  an- 
swered Lincoln,  "although  the  conclusions 
are  reached  by  different  processes.  I  know 
by  my  senses  that  the  movements  of  the 
world  are  those  of  an  infinitely  powerful 
machine,  which  runs  for  ages  without 
variation.  A  man  who  can  put  two  ideas 
together  knows  that  such  a  machine  re- 
quires an  infinitely  powerful  maker  and 
governor;  man's  nature  is  such  that  he 
cannot  take  in  the  machine  and  keep  out 
the  maker.  This  maker  is  God — infinite  in 
wisdom  as  well  as  power.  Would  we  be 
any  more  certain  if  we  saw  Him?" 


152  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

"I  am  not  controverting  your  position," 
said  Chittenden.  "Your  confidence  inter- 
ests me  beyond  expression.  I  wish  I  knew 
how  to  acquire  it.  Even  now,  must  it  not 
all  depend  on  our  faith  in  the  Bible?" 

"No,"  said  Lincoln.  "There  is  the  ele- 
ment of  personal  experience.  If  it  did,  the 
character  of  the  Bible  is  easily  established, 
at  least  to  my  satisfaction.  We  have  to 
believe  many  things  that  we  do  not  com- 
prehend. The  Bible  is  the  only  one  that 
claims  to  be  God's  Book — to  comprise  his 
law — his  history.  It  contains  an  immense 
amount  of  evidence  of  its  own  authen- 
ticity. It  describes  a  Governor  omnipo- 
tent enough  to  operate  this  great  machine, 
and  declares  that  He  made  it.  It  states 
other  facts  which  we  do  not  fully  compre- 
hend, but  which  we  cannot  account  for. 
What  shall  we  do  with  them? 

"Now,  let  us  treat  the  Bible  fairly,"  con- 
tinued Lincoln.  "If  we  had  a  witness  on 
the  stand  whose  general  story  we  knew  was 
true,  we  would  believe  him  when  he  as- 
serted facts  of  which  we  had  no  other  evi- 
dence. We  ought  to  treat  the  Bible  with 
equal  fairness.  I  decided  a  long  time  ago 


THE  CHRISTIAN  153 

that  it  was  less  difficult  to  believe  that  the 
Bible  was  what  it  claimed  to  be  than  to 
disbelieve  it.  It  is  a  good  book  for  us  to 
obey — it  contains  the  Ten  Commandments, 
the  Golden  Rule,  and  many  other  rules 
which  ought  to  be  followed.  No  man  was 
ever  the  worse  for  living  according  to  the 
directions  of  the  Bible." 

"If  your  views  are  correct,"  said  Chitten- 
den,  "the  Almighty  is  on  our  side,  and  we 
ought  to  win  without  so  many  losses.  .  .  ." 

Mr.  Lincoln  promptly  interrupted  him 
and  said:  "We  have  no  right  to  criticize  or 
complain.  He  is  on  our  side,  and  so  is  the 
Bible,  and  so  are  the  churches  and  Chris- 
tian societies  and  organizations — all  of 
them,  so  far  as  I  know,  almost  without  an 
exception.  It  makes  me  stronger  and  more 
confident  to  know  that  all  the  Christians 
in  the  loyal  States  are  praying  for  our 
success,  and  that  all  their  influences  are 
working  to  the  same  end.  Thousands  of 
them  are  fighting  for  us,  and  no  one  will 
say  that  an  officer  or  a  private  is  less  brave 
because  he  is  a  praying  soldier.  At  first, 
when  we  had  such  long  spells  of  bad  luck, 
I  used  to  lose  heart  sometimes.  Now,  I 


154  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

seem  to  know  that  Providence  has  pro- 
tected and  will  protect  us  against  any  fatal 
defeat.  All  we  have  to  do  is  to  trust  the 
Almighty,  and  keep  on  obeying  His  orders 
and  executing  His  will."86 

After  such  testimony,  if  we  allow  that 
Lincoln  was  honest  and  sincere,  who  can 
doubt  his  faith  or  proclaim  that  he  was 
an  atheist  or  infidel?  Three  things  are 
herein  most  clearly  established:  his  belief 
in  the  Bible  as  the  inspired  Word  of  God, 
his  belief  in  the  fundamental  principles 
and  doctrines  of  the  Christian  faith,  and 
his  faithful  endeavor  to  live  according 
thereto. 

COMFORT   FROM   JOB 

A  woman  at  the  White  House  relates  an 
interesting  incident  of  Mr.  Lincoln  reading 
the  Bible  when  everything  seemed  dark: 

"One  day  he  came  into  the  room  where  I 
was  fitting  a  dress  for  Mrs.  Lincoln.  His 
step  was  slow  and  heavy,  and  his  face  sad. 
Like  a  tired  child  he  threw  himself  upon 
the  sofa,  and  shaded  his  eyes  with  his 
hands.  He  was  a  complete  picture  of 
dejection.  Mrs.  Lincoln,  observing  his 
troubled  look,  asked: 


THE  CHRISTIAN  155 

"  'Where  have  you  been?' 

"  'To  the  War  Department,'  was  the 
brief,  almost  sullen  answer. 

"  'Any  news?' 

"  'Yes,  plenty  of  news,  but  no  good 
news.  It  is  dark,  dark  everywhere.' 

"He  reached  forth  one  of  his  long  arms 
and  took  a  small  Bible  from  a  stand  near 
the  head  of  the  sofa,  opened  the  pages  of 
the  Holy  Book,  and  soon  was  absorbed  in 
reading  them.  A  quarter  of  an  hour 
passed,  and  on  glancing  at  the  sofa  the 
face  of  the  President  seemed  more  cheerful. 
The  dejected  look  was  gone,  and  the  coun- 
tenance was  lighted  up  with  new  resolution 
and  hope.  The  change  was  so  marked  that 
I  could  not  but  wonder  at  it,  and  wonder 
led  to  the  desire  to  know  what  book  of 
the  Bible  afforded  so  much  comfort  to 
the  reader.  Making  the  search  for  a 
missing  article  an  excuse,  I  walked  gently 
around  the  sofa,  and,  looking  into  the  open 
book,  I  discovered  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
reading  that  divine  comforter,  Job.  He 
read  with  Christian  eagerness,  and  the 
courage  and  the  hope  that  he  derived  from 
the  inspired  pages  made  him  a  new  man."87 


156  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

READING   THE   TESTAMENT 

"A  MR.  JAY  states  that,  being  on  the 
steamer  which  conveyed  the  governmental 
party  from  Fortress  Monroe  to  Norfolk, 
after  the  destruction  of  the  Merrimac, 
while  all  on  board  were  excited  by  the 
novelty  of  the  excursion  and  by  the  inci- 
dents that  it  recalled,  he  missed  the  Presi- 
dent from  the  company,  and,  on  looking 
about,  found  him  in  a  quiet  nook,  reading  a 
well-worn  Testament.  Such  an  incidental 
revelation  of  his  religious  habits  is  worth 
more  than  pages  of  formal  testimony."88 

READS   BIBLE   EVERY   MORNING 

CAPTAIN  Mix,  the  commander  at  one 
time  of  Lincoln's  bodyguard,  was  fre- 
quently invited  to  breakfast  with  the 
family  at  the  "Home"  residence.  "Many 
times,"  said  he,  "have  I  listened  to  our 
most  eloquent  preachers,  but  never  with 
the  same  feeling  of  awe  and  reverence  as 
when  our  Christian  President,  his  arm 
around  his  son,  with  his  deep  earnest  tone, 
each  morning,  read  a  chapter  from  the 
Bible."89 

After  1857  Mr.  Lincoln  seldom  made  a 


y>* 
<•  , 
^'7    /- 


r 


*" 


. 


LINCOLN'S  \ 

Inside  cover  and  title-paRe  of  the  Lincoln  family  Bible,  from  which  hiam 
when  about  ten  years  old,  shortly  after  his  mother's  death.  It  undoubtedly 
Mr.  Lincoln  used  it  while  in  the  White  House.  It  is  now  in  the  Oldroyd  Li : 
N.  \V.,  Washington,  D.  C.  Reproduced  from  a  photo  by  the  courtesy  of  the  01 


IlOLYllBLE, 

<osi  •.  i  \  i  N  r ; 
'////•J  Ol  !)  sl\' I)  MW 

/i.         i.JL         11     '  IN         '^          './    ! 

W  J  T  15 

A  R  G  U  M  E  N  T  S 

PnlTIXrD  '/O  THE  DIFFFRF.NT  BOCKS-, 

• 
AND    MOHAL    AND    THEOLOGICAL 

0  B  S  E  R  V  A  T  I  O  N  S    1 


/.vr,  /;.K.'/7  CHAPTER.- 


COMP4SCO   HY 


MROSTERVALD.PROEESSOB 


//  i.v  »'AX>.'1  LF.KIL 


lER'S  BIBLE 

r  read  to  him.  It  bears  the  date  of  1799.  Mr.  Lincoln  wrote  his  name  in  it 
carried  by  the  Lincolns  from  Kentucky  to  Indiana,  and  thence  to  Illinois. 
Memorial  Collection,  in  the  house  in  which  Lincoln  died,  516  Tenth  Street, 
Captain  O.  H.  Oldroyd. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  157 

speech  which  did  not  contain  one  or  more 
quotations  from  the  Bible. 

READS   HIS   MOTHER  S    BIBLE 

A  lady  staying  at  the  White  House  says: 
"It  was  his  custom  when  waiting  for  lunch 
to  take  his  mother's  old  worn-out  Bible 
and  lie  on  the  lounge  and  read,  and  one  day 
he  asked  me  what  book  I  liked  to  read 
best,  and  I  said,  'I  am  fond  of  the  Psalms.' 
'Yes,'  said  he  to  me,  'they  are  the  best, 
for  I  find  in  them  something  for  every  day 
in  the  week.'  "90 

HIS  MOTHER'SV  WISH 

"  'I  would  rather  Abe  would  be  able 
to  read  the  Bible  than  to  own  a  farm,  if 
he  can't  have  but  one,'  said  his  godly 
mother.  That  Bible  was  Abraham  Lin- 
coln's guide."91 

GOD'S   BEST   GIFT 

September  7,  1864,  a  deputation  of  col- 
ored people  from  Baltimore  presented  him 
with  a  Bible.  Lincoln  replied: 

In  regard  to  this  Great  Book,  I  have  but  to  say, 
it  is  the  best  gift  God  has  given  to  man.  All  the 
good  Saviour  gave  to  the  world  was  communicated 
through  this  book.  But  for  it  we  could  not  know 


158  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1864 

right  from  wrong.  All  things  most  desirable  for 
man's  welfare,  here  and  hereafter,  are  to  be  found 
portrayed  in  it.  To  you  I  return  my  most  sincere 
thanks  for  the  very  elegant  copy  of  the  great  Book 
of  God  which  you  present.* 

SECOND  ANNUAL  THANKSGIVING  DAY 

October  20,  1864,  Mr.  Lincoln  issued  a 
proclamation  for  a  second  annual  Thanks- 
giving on  the  last  Thursday  in  November. 
It  was  in  the  same  reverential  and  devout 
tone  as  the  first  one.  Since  then  our  Presi- 
dents have  followed  his  example  by  issuing 
an  annual  proclamation,  setting  apart  the 
last  Thursday  of  November  as  a  National 
Thanksgiving  Day.  It  is  as  follows: 

It  has  pleased  Almighty  God  to  prolong  our 
national  life  another  year,  defending  us  with  His 
guardian  care  against  unfriendly  designs  from 
abroad,  and  vouchsafing  to  us  in  His  mercy  many 
and  signal  victories  over  the  enemy,  who  is  of 
our  own  household.  It  has  also  pleased  our  Heavenly 
Father  to  favor  as  well  our  citizens  in  their  homes 
as  our  soldiers  in  their  camps,  and  our  sailors  on 
the  rivers  and  seas,  with  unusual  health.  He  has 
largely  augmented  our  free  population  by  emancipa- 
tion and  by  immigration,  while  he  has  opened  to 
us  new  sources  of  wealth,  and  has  crowned  the 
labor  of  our  working-men  in  every  department  of 


1864]  THE  CHRISTIAN  159 

industry  with  abundant  rewards.  Moreover,  He 
has  been  pleased  to  animate  and  inspire  our  minds 
and  hearts  with  fortitude,  courage,  and  resolution 
sufficient  for  the  great  trial  of  civil  war  into  which 
we  have  been  brought  by  our  adherence  as  a  na- 
tion to  the  cause  of  freedom  and  humanity,  and  to 
afford  to  us  reasonable  hopes  of  an  ultimate  and 
happy  deliverance  from  all  our  dangers  and 
afflictions. 

Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  President 
of  the  United  States,  do  hereby  appoint  and  set 
apart  the  last  Thursday  of  November  next  as  a 
day  which  I  desire  to  be  observed  by  all  my  fellow- 
citizens,  wherever  they  may  then  be,  as  a  day  of 
thanksgiving  and  praise  to  Almighty  God,  the 
beneficent  Creator  and  Ruler  of  the  Universe.  And 
I  do  further  recommend  to  my  fellow-citizens 
aforesaid,  that  on  that  occasion  they  do  reverently 
humble  themselves  in  the  dust,  and  from  thence 
offer  up  penitent  and  fervent  prayers  and  sup- 
plications to  the  great  Disposer  of  events  for  a 
return  of  the  inestimable  blessings  of  peace, 
union,  and  harmony  throughout  the  land  which  it 
has  pleased  Him  to  assign  as  a  dwelling-place 
for  ourselves  and  for  our  posterity  throughout  all 
generations.* 

GRATEFUL  TO  GOD  FOR  REELECTION 

November  9,  1864,  in  response  to  a 
serenade  at  the  White  House  by  a  club  of 


160  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1864 

Pennsylvanians,  on  the  occasion  of  his  re- 
election, Mr.  Lincoln  said: 

I  am  thankful  to  God  for  this  approval  of  the 
people;  but,  while  deeply  grateful  for  this  mark 
of  their  confidence  in  me,  if  I  know  my  heart, 
my  gratitude  is  free  from  any  taint  of  personal 
triumph.  I  do  not  impugn  the  motives  of  any 
opposed  to  me.  It  is  no  pleasure  to  me  to  triumph 
over  anyone,  but  I  give  thanks  to  the  Almighty 
for  this  evidence  of  the  people's  resolution  to 
stand  by  free  government  and  the  rights  of 
humanity.* 

November  10,  1864,  in  response  to 
another  serenade  at  the  White  House  by 
the  various  Lincoln  and  Johnson  clubs  of 
the  District,  Mr.  Lincoln  said: 

So  long  as  I  have  been  here  I  have  not  willingly 
planted  a  thorn  in  any  man's  bosom.  While  I 
am  deeply  sensible  to  the  high  compliment  of  a 
reelection,  and  duly  grateful,  as  I  trust,  to  Almighty 
God  for  having  directed  my  countrymen  to  a  right 
conclusion,  as  I  think,  for  their  good,  it  adds  nothing 
to  my  satisfaction  that  any  other  man  may  be 
disappointed  or  pained  by  the  result.* 

LINCOLN  THE  COMFORTER 
On    November    21,    1864,    Mr.    Lincoln 
wrote  the  following  letter  to  Mrs.  Lydia 
Bixby,  of  Boston: 


1864]  THE  CHRISTIAN  161 

DEAR  MADAM:  I  have  been  shown  in  the  files 
of  the  War  Department  a  statement  of  the  Ad- 
jutant-General of  Massachusetts  that  you  are  the 
mother  of  five  sons  who  have  died  gloriously  on 
the  field  of  battle.  I  feel  how  weak  and  fruitless 
must  be  any  words  of  mine  which  should  attempt 
to  beguile  you  from  the  grief  of  a  loss  so  over- 
whelming. But  I  cannot  refrain  from  tendering  to 
you  the  consolation  that  may  be  found  in  the  thanks 
of  the  Republic  they  died  to  save.  I  pray  that 
our  Heavenly  Father  may  assuage  the  anguish 
of  your  bereavement,  and  leave  you  only  the 
cherished  memory  of  the  loved  and  lost,  and  the 
solemn  pride  that  must  be  yours  to  have  laid  so 
costly  a  sacrifice  upon  the  alt^r  of  freedom.*92 

What  but  a  pious,  devoted,  consecrated 
heart,  bearing  such  stupendous  burdens, 
could  write  such  a  pathetic  and  perfect 
letter  of  condolence?  This  letter  should  be 
placed  with  that  immortal  twenty-line  ad- 
dress at  Gettysburg,  "the  high-water  mark 
of  sententious  eloquence."  With  these, 
also,  place  that  wonderful  second  inaugural 
address,  "the  most  sublime  state  paper  of 
the  nineteenth  century."  These  three  are 
sufficient  to  have  crowned  any  man  with 
imperishable  fame,  but  with  Lincoln  they 
were  but  the  fruits  of  inward  piety,  purity, 
and  sincerity. 


162  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

"MosT  PRESUMPTUOUS  BLOCKHEAD" 

MR.  NOAH  BROOKS  tells  of  a  conversa- 
tion with  the  President  just  after  his  second 
election.  In  reply  to  the  remark  that  he 
might  remember  that  in  all  these  cares  he 
was  daily  remembered  by  those  who 
prayed,  not  to  be  heard  of  men,  as  no  man 
ever  before  was  remembered,  he  caught  at 
the  homely  phrase  and  said,  "Yes,  I  like  that 
phrase,  'not  to  be  heard  of  men/  and  guess 
it  is  generally  true,  as  you  say;  at  least,  I 
have  been  told  so,  and  I  have  been  a  good 
deal  helped  by  just  that  thought."  Then 
he  solemnly  and  slowly  added,  "I  should 
be  the  most  presumptuous  blockhead  upon 
this  footstool  if  I  had  for  one  day  thought 
that  I  could  discharge  the  duties  which 
have  come  upon  me  since  I  came  into  this 
place  without  the  aid  and  enlightenment  of 
One  who  is  stronger  and  wiser  than  all 
others."93 

Go  AWAY  A  BETTER  MAN 

At  another  time  he  said  cheerfully,  "I 
am  very  sure  that  if  I  do  not  go  away  from 
here  a  wiser  man,  I  shall  go  away  a  better 
man,  for  having  learned  here  what  a  very 


1864]  THE  CHRISTIAN  163 

poor  sort  of  man  I  am."  Afterward,  re- 
ferring to  what  he  called  a  change  of  heart, 
he  said  he  did  not  remember  any  precise 
time  when  he  passed  through  any  special 
change  of  purpose,  or  of  heart;  but  he 
would  say,  that  his  own  election  to  office, 
and  the  crisis  immediately  following,  in- 
fluentially  determined  him  in  what  he 
called  a  'process  of  crystallization5  then 
going  on  in  his  mind."94 

FOURTH  ANNUAL  MESSAGE  TO 
CONGRESS 

It  is  worthy  of  special  attention  that  in 
every  annual  message  to  Congress  Mr. 
Lincoln  begins  by  an  acknowledgment  of 
gratitude  to  God  and  reliance  upon  Him. 
In  his  message,  December  6,  1864,  he 
begins,  "Again  the  blessings  of  health  and 
abundant  harvests  claim  our  profoundest 
gratitude  to  Almighty  God."* 

ONLY  His  DUTY 

Only  a  few  months  before  Mr.  Lincoln 
died  he  was  waited  upon  at  the  White 
House  by  about  two  hundred  members  of 
the  Christian  Commission  and  officers  of 


164  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

the  army,  who  had  been  holding  their 
annual  meeting,  to  thank  him  for  what  he 
had  done  for  the  soldiers  and  sailors.  Mr. 
George  H.  Stuart,  of  Philadelphia,  chair- 
man, made  a  short  complimentary  speech. 
Mr.  Lincoln  replied:  "My  friends,  I  owe  no 
thanks  for  what  you  have  done.  You  owe 
no  thanks  for  what  I  have  done.  You  have 
done  your  duty.  I  have  done  mine.  Let 
us  keep  on  doing  our  duty,  and  by  the  help 
of  God  we  may  yet  save  our  country.  I 
should  be  glad  to  take  each  of  you  by  the 
hand."  He  passed  around  shaking  hands 
with  all  present.  Bishop  Janes  said,  "Let 
us  pray."  One  who  was  present  says: 
"We  all  fell  on  our  knees,  and  such  a 
prayer  as  followed  seldom  has  been  heard 
on  earth.  Mr.  Lincoln  responded  heartily 
all  the  way  through.  It  was  next  door  to 
heaven  in  the  White  House  that  day."95 

GOD'S  PLANS  His  PLANS 
On  another  occasion,  replying  to  certain 
ministers  of  the  Christian  Commission,  Mr. 
Lincoln  said: 

If  it  were  not  for  my  firm  belief  in  an  over- 
ruling  Providence,   it  would  be   difficult   for   me, 


THE  CHRISTIAN  165 

in  the  midst  of  such  complications  of  affairs,  to 
keep  my  reason  on  its  seat.  But  I  am  confident 
that  the  Almighty  has  His  plans,  and  will  work 
them  out;  and,  whether  we  see  it  or  not,  they 
will  be  the  best  for  us.  I  have  always  taken  coun- 
sel of  Him,  and  referred  to  Him  my  plans,  and 
have  never  adopted  a  course  of  proceeding  without 
being  assured,  as  far  as  I  could  be,  of  His  appro- 
bation. To  be  sure,  He  has  not  conformed  to  my 
desires,  or  else  we  should  have  been  out  of  our 
trouble  long  ago.  On  the  other  hand,  His  will 
does  not  seem  to  agree  with  the  wish  of  our  enemy 
over  there  [pointing  across  the  Potomac].  He 
stands  the  Judge  between  us,  and  we  ought  to  be 
willing  to  accept  His  decisions.  We  have  reason 
to  anticipate  that  it  will  be  favorable  to  us,  for 
OUT  cause  is  right.96 

IN  ANSWER  TO  PRAYER 

DR.  JOHN  D.  HILL,  a  well-known  physi- 
cian of  Buffalo,  was  a  member  of  the  Sani- 
tary Commission.  At  a  meeting  of  that 
organization  in  the  White  House  one  night 
he  congratulated  Mr.  Lincoln  on  having 
originated  such  a  gigantic  plan  for  the  care 
of  the  sick  and  wounded  soldiers.  Mr. 
Lincoln  said: 

You  must  carry  your  thanks  to  a  Higher  Being. 
One  stormy  night  I  tossed  on  my  bed,  unable  to 


166  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

sleep  as  I  thought  of  the  terrible  sufferings  of  our 
soldiers  and  sailors.  I  spent  an  hour  in  agonizing 
prayer  to  God  for  some  method  of  relief,  and  He 
put  the  Sanitary  Commission  in  my  mind,  with 
all  its  details,  as  distinctly  as  though  the  instruc- 
tions had  been  written  out  by  pen  and  handed  to 
me.  Hereafter,  always  thank  your  Heavenly  Father, 
and  not  me,  for  this  organization,  which  has  eased 
so  much  pain  and  saved  so  many  lives.97 


NEW  YORK  AVENUE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH 

WASHINGTON,   D.  C. 

In  Lincoln's  Time 


THE  CHRISTIAN  167 


LINCOLN  AND  CHURCH  MEMBERSHIP 

Lincoln  was  always  a  regular  attendant 
at  church  after  his  removal  to  Springfield, 
Illinois.  His  old  neighbors  all  testify  to 
that.  While  he  lived  at  Springfield,  Il- 
linois, he  attended  the  First  Presbyterian 
Church.  When  he  became  President  he 
and  Mrs.  Lincoln  attended  regularly  the 
New  York  Avenue  Presbyterian  Church. 
He  was  never  a  member  of  any  church. 
In  a  conversation  with  Dr.  Phineas  D. 
Gurley,  his  pastor  in  Washington,  he  said 
that  he  could  not  accept,  perhaps,  all  the 
doctrines  of  his  Confession  of  Faith,  "but," 
said  he,  "if  all  that  I  am  asked  to  respond 
to  is  what  our  Lord  said  were  the  two 
great  commandments,  to  love  the  Lord  thy 
God  with  all  thy  heart  and  mind  and  soul 
and  strength,  and  my  neighbor  as  myself, 
why,  I  aim  to  do  that."98 

LAW  AND   GOSPEL 

HONORABLE  HENRY  C.  DEMING,  a  mem- 
ber of  Congress  from  Connecticut,  relates 


168  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

that  when  asked  why,  with  his  marked 
religious  character,  he  did  not  unite  with 
some  church,  Lincoln  said: 

I  have  never  united  myself  to  any  church, 
because  I  have  found  difficulty  in  giving  my  assent, 
without  mental  reservation,  to  the  long,  compli- 
cated statements  of  Christian  doctrine  which 
characterize  their  articles  of  belief  and  confessions 
of  faith.  When  any  church  will  inscribe  over  its 
altars,  as  its  sole  qualification  for  membership,  the 
Saviour's  condensed  statement  of  the  substance  of 
both  law  and  gospel,  "Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord 
thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul, 
and  with  all  thy  mind,  and  thy  neighbor  as  thy 
self,"  that  church  will  I  join  with  all  my  heart 
and  all  my  soul.98 

INTENDED    TO    MAKE   A    PUBLIC    PROFESSION 

In  his  later  life,  however,  it  seems  that 
Mr.  Lincoln  realized  his  mistake  and  in- 
tended to  make  a  public  profession.  A 
Rev.  Mr.  Willits,  according  to  F.  B.  Car- 
penter, the  artist,  tells  of  a  lady  connected 
with  the  work  of  the  Christian  Commission, 
who  had  occasion  to  have  several  inter- 
views with  the  President.  One  day  Mr. 

Lincoln  said  to  her:  "Mrs.  B ,  I  have 

formed  a  very  high  opinion  of  your  Chris- 
tian character,  and  now,  as  we  are  alone, 


THE  CHRISTIAN  169 

I  have  a  mind  to  ask  you  to  give  me,  in 
brief,  your  idea  of  what  constitutes  a  true 
religious  experience."  The  lady  stated  that, 
in  her  judgment,  it  consisted  of  a  convic- 
tion of  one's  own  sinfulness  and  weakness, 
and  personal  need  of  the  Saviour  for 
strength  and  support;  a  feeling  of  the  need 
of  divine  help,  and  a  seeking  of  the  aid  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  for  strength  and  guidance; 
that  these  were  a  satisfactory  evidence  of 
having  been  born  again."  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
silent  and  thoughtful.  After  a  few  mo- 
ments he  said,  very  earnestly:  "If  what 
you  have  told  me  is  really  a  correct  view  of 
this  great  subject,  I  think  I  can  say  with 
sincerity  that  I  hope  I  am  a  Christian.  I 
had  lived  until  -my  boy  Willie  died  without 
realizing  fully  these  things.  That  blow 
overwhelmed  me.  It  showed  me  my  weak- 
ness as  I  had  never  felt  it  before,  and  if  I 
can  take  what  you  have  stated  as  a  test, 
I  think  I  can  safely  say  that  I  know  some- 
thing of  that  change  of  which  you  speak; 
and  I  will  further  add,  that  it  has  been 
my  intention  for  some  time,  at  a  suitable 
opportunity,  to  make  a  public  religious 
profession."100 


170  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Mr.  Henry  C.  Whitney,  an  intimate  and 
close  friend  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  says,  "This 
statement  was  made  to  an  eminent  Chris- 
tian lady,  and  may  be  relied  upon  as 
authentic,  and  it  shows  conclusively  that 
Abraham  Lincoln  was  a  Christian."101 

OPINION   OF  A   BOSOM   FRIEND 

MR.  NOAH  BROOKS,  newspaper  corre- 
spondent, bosom  friend  of  Mr.  Lincoln 
from  1862  until  his  death,  and  author  of 
his  biography,  writes  December  31,  1872, 
as  follows:  "I  have  had  many  conversa- 
tions with  Mr.  Lincoln,  which  were  more 
or  less  of  a  religious  character,  and  while  I 
never  tried  to  draw  anything  like  a  state- 
ment of  his  views  from  him,  yet  he  freely 
expressed  himself  to  me  as  having  a  hope 
of  blessed  immortality  through  Jesus 
Christ.  .  .  .  Once  or  twice,  speaking  to  me 
of  the  change  which  had  come  upon  him, 
he  said,  while  he  could  not  fix  any  definite 
time,  yet  it  was  after  he  came  here,  and  I 
am  very  positive  that  in  his  own  mind 
he  identified  it  about  the  time  of  Willie's 
death.  In  many  conversations  with  him  I 
absorbed  the  firm  conviction  that  Mr. 


gfi 


REV.  PHINEAS  D.  GURLEY,  D.D. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  171 

Lincoln  was  at  heart  a  Christian  man, 
believed  in  the  Saviour,  and  was  seriously 
considering  the  step  which  would  per- 
sonally connect  him  with  the  visible 
church  on  earth/'102 

OPINION   OF   HIS   PASTOR 

THE  REV.  PHINEAS  D.  GURLEY,  D.D., 
Mr.  Lincoln's  pastor  while  President,  writes : 
"I  have  had  frequent  and  intimate  conversa- 
tions with  him  [Lincoln]  on  the  subject  of 
the  Bible  and  the  Christian  religion,  when 
he  could  have  had  no  motive  to  deceive 
me,  and  I  considered  him  sound,  not  only 
on  the  truth  of  the  Christian  religion,  but 
on  all  its  fundamental  doctrines  and  teach- 
ings. And,  more  than  that,  in  the  latter 
days  of  his  chastened  and  weary  life,  after 
the  death  of  his  son  Willie,  and  his  visit  to 
the  battlefield  of  Gettysburg,  he  said,  with 
tears  in  his  eyes,  that  he  had  lost  confi- 
dence in  everything  but  God,  and  that 
he  now  believed  his  heart  was  changed 
and  that  he  loved  the  Saviour,  and,  if 
he  was  not  deceived  in  himself,  it  was 
his  intention  soon  to  make  a  profession  of 
religion."108 


173  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

HUNGER  AND  THIRST  AFTER  RIGHTEOUSNESS 

Mr.  Lincoln  once  said  to  a  friend:  "I 
have  read  the  beatitudes  of  Jesus.  I 
have  sometimes  thought  I  might  claim 
the  benefit  of  the  one  that  pronounces 
a  blessing  upon  those  who  hunger  and 
thirst  after  righteousness;  if  that  fails 
me,  possibly  I  may  come  in  among  the 
peacemakers .  "'  °4 

LOVES  JESUS 

Shortly  before  his  death  an  Illinois  clergy- 
man asked  Lincoln,  "Do  you  love  Jesus?" 
Mr.  Lincoln  solemnly  replied:  "When  I 
left  Springfield  I  asked  the  people  to  pray 
for  me.  I  was  not  a  Christian.  When  I 
buried  my  son,  the  severest  trial  of  my  life, 
I  was  not  a  Christian.  But  when  I  went  to 
Gettysburg  and  saw  the  graves  of  thou- 
sands of  our  soldiers,  I  then  and  there 
consecrated  myself  to  Christ.  Yes,  I  do 
love  Jesus."105 

"Reticent  as  he  was,  and  shy  of  dis- 
coursing much  of  his  own  mental  exercises, 
these  few  utterances  now  have  a  value 
with  those  who  knew  him  which  his  dying 
words  scarcely  have  possessed." 


1865]  THE  CHRISTIAN  173 

IMMORTAL  WORDS 

In  that  remarkable  and  ever-memorable 
second  inaugural  address,  delivered  at 
Washington,  March  4,  1865,  just  six  weeks 
before  his  death,  he  gave  utterance  to  these 
sublime  and  immortal  words: 

Both  read  the  same  Bible,  and  pray  to  the 
same  God;  and  each  invokes  His  aid  against  the 
other.  It  may  seem  strange  that  any  men  should 
dare  to  ask  a  just  God's  assistance  in  wringing 
their  bread  from  the  sweat  of  other  men's  faces; 
but  let  us  judge  not,  that  we  be  not  judged.  The 
prayers  of  both  could  not  be  answered — that  of 
neither  has  been  answered  fully. 

The  Almighty  has  his  own  purposes.  "Woe  unto 
the  world  because  of  offenses!  for  it  must  needs 
be  that  offenses  come;  but  woe  to  that  man  by 
whom  the  offense  cometh."  If  we  shall  suppose 
that  American  slavery  is  one  of  those  offenses 
which,  in  the  providence  of  God,  must  needs  come, 
but  which,  having  continued  through  His  appointed 
time,  He  now  wills  to  remove,  and  that  He  gives 
to  both  North  and  South  this  terrible  war,  as  the 
woe  to  those  by  whom  the  offense  came,  shall  we 
discern  therein  any  departure  from  those  divine 
attributes  which  the  believers  in  a  living  God  al- 
ways ascribe  to  him?  Fondly  do  we  hope — fer- 
vently do  we  pray — that  this  mighty  scourge  of 
war  may  speedily  pass  away.  Yet,  if  God  wills 
that  it  continue  until  all  the  wealth  piled  by  the 


174  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1865 

bondman's  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  unre- 
quited toil  shall  be  sunk,  and  until  every  drop 
of  blood  drawn  with  the  lash  shall  be  paid  with 
another  drawn  with  the  sword,  as  was  said  three 
thousand  years  ago,  so  still  it  must  be  said,  "The 
judgments  of  the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous 
altogether." 

With  malice  toward  none;  with  charity  for  all; 
with  firmness  in  the  right,  as  God  gives  us  to  see 
the  right,  let  us  strive  on  to  finish  the  work  we  are 
in;  to  bind  up  the  nation's  wounds;  to  care  for 
him  who  shall  have  borne  the  battle,  and  for  his 
widow,  and  his  orphan — to  do  all  which  may 
achieve  and  cherish  a  just  and  a  lasting  peace 
among  ourselves,  and  with  all  nations.* 

"These  words  show  the  President  still 
untouched  by  resentment,  still  brotherly  in 
his  feelings  toward  the  enemies  of  the 
government,  and  still  profoundly  conscious 
of  the  overruling  power  of  Providence  in 
national  affairs."  Well  has  it  been  said 
that  it  was  a  paper  whose  Christian  senti- 
ment and  whose  reverent  and  pious  spirit 
has  no  parallel  among  the  state  papers  of 
the  American  Presidents.  "His  mind  and 
soul  has  reached  the  full  development  in  a 
religious  life  so  unusually  intense  and 
absorbing  that  it  could  not  otherwise  than 
utter  itself  in  the  grand  sentences  of  his 


1865]  THE  CHRISTIAN  175 

last  address  to  the  people.  The  knowledge 
had  come,  and  the  faith  had  come,  and  the 
charity  had  come,  and  with  all  had  come 
the  love  of  God." 

LETTER  TO  THURLOW  WEED 
In  reply  to  a  letter  complimenting  him 
on    the    inaugural    address,    Mr.    Lincoln 
writes  to  Thurlow  Weed  on  March  15, 1865, 
as  follows: 

Men  are  not  flattered  by  being  shown  that  there 
has  been  a  difference  of  purpose  between  the  Al- 
mighty and  them.  To  deny^  it,  however,  in  this 
case,  is  to  deny  that  there  is  a  God  governing  the 
world.  It  is  a  truth  which  I  thought  needed  to 
be  told,  and,  as  whatever  of  humiliation  there  is 
in  it  falls  most  directly  on  myself,  I  thought  others 
might  afford  for  me  to  tell  it.* 

QUAKERESS  PRAYING  WITH  HIM 

MR.  F.  B.  CARPENTER  relates  what  was 
said  by  a  gentleman  at  a  dinner  party  in 
Washington  during  Mr.  Lincoln's  second 
administration,  in  part  as  follows:  "I  was 
up  at  the  White  House,  having  called  to 
see  the  President  on  business.  I  was 
shown  into  the  office  of  his  private  secre- 
tary, and  told  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  busy 


176  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1865 

just  then,  but  would  be  disengaged  in  a 
short  time.  While  waiting  I  heard  a  very 
earnest  prayer,  being  uttered  in  a  loud 
female  voice  in  the  adjoining  room.  I  in- 
quired what  it  meant,  and  was  told  that 
an  old  Quaker  lady,  a  friend  of  the  Presi- 
dent, had  called  that  afternoon,  and  taken 
tea  with  the  President  at  the  White  House, 
and  that  she  was  then  praying  with  Mr. 
Lincoln.  After  the  lapse  of  a  few  minutes 
the  prayer  ceased,  and  the  President,  ac- 
companied by  a  Quakeress  not  less  than 
eighty  years  old,  entered  the  room  where  I 
was  sitting."106 

A  STRANGE  TRIUMPHAL  ENTRY 

ADMIRAL  PORTER  tells  of  Mr.  Lincoln's 
visit  to  Richmond,  Virginia,  April  4,  1865, 
making  the  trip  by  boat.  There  was  a 
small  house  on  the  landing,  and  behind  it 
were  some  twelve  negroes  digging  with 
spades.  Their  leader  was  an  old  man. 
He  raised  himself  to  an  upright  position 
as  we  landed  and  put  his  hands  up  to  his 
eyes.  Then  he  dropped  his  spade  and 
sprang  forward.  "Bless  de  Lawd,"  he 
said,  "dere  is  de  great  Messiah!  I  knowed 


1865]  THE  CHRISTIAN  177 

him  as  soon  as  I  seed  him.  He's  been  in 
my  heart  fo*  long  yeahs,  an'  he's  cum  at 
las'  to  free  his  chillun  from  deir  bondage — 
Glory,  Hallelujah!"  And  he  fell  on  his 
knees  before  the  President  and  kissed  his 
feet.  The  others  followed  his  example,  the 
news  spread,  and  in  a  few  minutes  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  surrounded  by  a  crowd  of 
colored  people,  who  had  treasured  up  the 
recollections  of  him  caught  from  a  photo- 
graph, and  had  looked  to  him  for  four 
years  as  the  one  who  was  to  lead  them 
out  of  captivity.  s 

Mr.  Lincoln  looked  down  at  the  poor 
creatures  at  his  feet;  he  was  much  embar- 
rassed at  his  position. 

"Don't  kneel  to  me,"  he  said;  "that  is 
not  right.  You  must  kneel  to  God  only, 
and  thank  Him  for  the  liberty  you  will 
hereafter  enjoy." 

His  face  lit  up  with  a  divine  look  as  he 
said  these  words.  In  his  enthusiasm  he 
seemed  the  personification  of  manly  beauty, 
and  that  sad  face  of  his  looked  down  in 
kindness  upon  these  ignorant  blacks.  He 
really  seemed  of  another  world.  .  .  .  The 
crowd  of  colored  people  was  so  great  that 


178  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1865 

the  President  could  not  proceed.    At  last 
he  said: 

"My  poor  friends,  you  are  free — free  as 
air.  You  can  cast  off  the  name  of  slave  and 
trample  upon  it;  it  will  come  to  you  no 
more.  Liberty  is  your  birthright.  God 
gave  it  to  you  as  He  gave  it  to  others,  and 
it  is  a  sin  that  you  have  been  deprived  of  it 
for  so  many  years.  But  you  must  try  to 
deserve  this  priceless  boon.  Let  the  world 
see  that  you  merit  it,  and  are  able  to  main- 
tain it  by  your  good  works.  Don't  let  your 
joy  carry  you  into  excesses.  Learn  the 
laws  and  obey  them;  obey  God's  command- 
ments and  thank  Him  for  giving  you  lib- 
erty, for  to  Him  you  owe  all  things.  There, 
now,  let  me  pass  on."107 

THE  PRESIDENT  AND  CABINET  IN  PRAYER 

"On  the  day  of  the  receipt  of  the  news 
of  the  capitulation  of  Lee,  as  we  learn  from 
a  friend  intimate  with  the  late  President 
Lincoln,  the  Cabinet  meeting  was  held  an 
hour  earlier  than  usual.  Neither  the  Presi- 
dent nor  any  member  was  able,  for  a  time, 
to  give  utterance  to  his  feelings.  At  the 
suggestion  of  Mr.  Lincoln  all  dropped  on 


1865]  THE  CHRISTIAN  179 

their  knees,  and  offered,  in  silence  and  in 
tears,  their  humble  and  heartfelt  acknowl- 
edgments to  the  Almighty  for  the  triumph 
He  had  granted  to  the  national  cause."108 

THE  RESURRECTION  OF  HUMAN  FREEDOM 

COLONEL  JAMES  M.  SCOVEL,  who,  during 
the  Civil  War,  was  a  State  senator  in  New 
Jersey,  tells  this  incident  about  Lincoln: 
"The  last  time  I  saw  him  he  had  just  re- 
turned from  Richmond.  He  beamed  and 
radiated  with  happiness.  A  few  days  after 
April  9,  which  was  the  -day  of  the  Appo- 
mattox  apple  tree,  he  caught  me  by  both 
hands — a  way  he  had  when  emotionally 
exercised — and  said  (and  I  will  recall  these 
words  in  my  dying  hour):  "Young  man,  if 
God  gives  me  four  years  more  to  rule  this 
country,  I  believe  it  will  become  what  it 
ought  to  be,  what  its  Divine  Author  in- 
tended it  to  be — no  longer  one  vast  planta- 
tion for  breeding  human  beings  for  the 
purposes  of  lust  and  bondage,  but  it  will 
become  a  new  Valley  of  Jehoshaphat, 
where  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  will 
assemble  together  under  one  flag,  wor- 
shiping a  common  God,  and  they  will 


180  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1865 

celebrate     the     resurrection     of     human 
freedom."109 


of  the  National  House  of  Representatives, 
in  a  memorial  address,  April  24,  1865, 
says:  "Nor  should  I  forget  to  mention 
here  that  the  last  act  of  Congress  ever 
signed  by  him  was  one  requiring  that  the 
motto,  in  which  he  sincerely  believed,  'In 
God  we  trust,'  should  hereafter  be  in- 
scribed upon  all  our  national  coin."110 

His  LAST  SPEECH 

Mr.  Lincoln  delivered  his  last  speech 
on  April  11,  1865,  in  response  to  a  serenade 
at  the  White  House.  In  that,  as  in  all  his 
speeches,  he  shows  a  devout  reverence  and 
a  sublime  trust  in  God.  He  said: 

The  evacuation  of  Petersburg  and  Richmond,  and 
the  surrender  of  the  principal  insurgent  army,  give 
hope  of  a  righteous  and  speedy  peace,  whose  joy- 
ous expression  cannot  be  restrained.  In  the  midst 
of  this,  however,  He  from  whom  all  blessings  flow 
must  not  be  forgotten.  A  call  for  a  national 
thanksgiving  is  being  prepared  and  will  be  duly 
promulgated.* 


1865]  THE  CHRISTIAN  181 

THE  LAST  INTERCESSORY  PRAYER 

Three  days  before  Mr.  Lincoln's  death  a 
Quaker  lady  was  visiting  him.  He  asked 
her  to  pray  with  him,  and  she  felt  his  hand 
tremble  upon  hers  like  a  leaf.  Afterward 
he  said,  "I  feel  helped  and  strengthened  by 
your  prayers."111 

RESIGNED 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  frequently  warned  of 
the  danger  of  assassination.  From  the  day 
of  his  election  he  seems  to  have  expected  it. 
A  little  while  before  the  end  he  said,  "I  do 
not  consider  that  I  have  ever  accomplished 
anything  without  God,  and  if  it  be  His  will 
that  I  must  die  by  the  hand  of  an  assassin, 
I  must  be  resigned."112 

His  LAST  DAY 

HONORABLE  ISAAC  N.  ARNOLD  says  that 
Mrs.  Lincoln  told  him  that  on  the  day 
before  his  death  President  Lincoln  said  to 
her: 

"Mary,  we  have  had  a  hard  time  of  it 
since  we  came  to  Washington;  but  now 
the  war  is  over,  and,  with  God's  blessing, 
we  may  hope  for  four  years  of  peace  and 


182  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  [1865 

happiness,  and  then  we  will  go  back  to 
Illinois  and  pass  the  rest  of  our  lives  in 
quiet."113 

His  LAST  WORDS 

THE  REV.  N.  W.  MINER,  who  was  pastor 
of  the  First  Baptist  Church  of  Springfield, 
Illinois,  and  an  old  friend  and  neighbor  of 
Mr.  Lincoln,  writes  as  follows:  "Mrs.  Lin- 
coln informed  me  that  the  last  day  he 
lived  was  the  happiest  of  his  life.  The 
very  last  moments  of  his  conscious  life 
were  spent  in  conversation  with  her  about 
his  future  plans,  and  what  he  wanted  to  do 
when  his  term  of  office  expired.  He  said 
he  wanted  to  visit  the  Holy  Land  and  see 
those  places  hallowed  by  the  footprints  of 
the  Saviour.  He  was  saying  there  was  no 
city  he  so  much  desired  to  see  as  Jerusalem; 
and  with  the  words  half  spoken  on  his 
tongue,  the  bullet  of  the  assassin  entered 
the  brain,  and  the  soul  of  the  great  and 
good  President  was  carried  by  the  angels 
to  the  New  Jerusalem  above.""4 


PRESIDENT  LINCOLN'S   LAST   PHOTOGRAPH 
"Anointed  and  prepared  for  the  sacrifice." — Page  141 

Taken  April  9,  1865,  the  day  of  T/ee's  surrender.  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  sharpening  a  pencil  for  little  Tad,  when  a  photographer  asked 
permission  to  make  a  picture. 

Reproduced  from  a  photograph  in  the  Lincoln  Memorial  Collec- 
tion, Washington,  D.  C.,  by  the  courtesy  of  the  owner,  Captain 
O.  H.  Oldrqyd. 

The  original  negative  by  Gardner  is  in  the  collection  of  Americana 
of  Frederick  H.  Meserve,  New  York  City. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  183 


TESTIMONY  OF  FRIENDS 

Is  the  evidence  sufficient?  Has  the  tes- 
timony already  produced  left  a  single 
doubt  in  anyone's  mind  as  to  Lincoln's 
religious  beliefs  and  character?  While  his 
own  testimony  is  the  strongest  and  best 
upon  which  to  base  a  conclusion,  yet  it 
cannot  be  out  of  place  to  hear  the  opinions 
of  personal  friends  and  eminent  men  who 
have  made  a  careful  study  of  Lincoln's 
character. 

MR.    WILLIAM   O.    STODDARD 

MR.  WILLIAM  O.  STODDARD,  his  private 
secretary,  bears  testimony  as  follows:  "It 
may  be  noted,  without  any  surprise  what- 
ever, that  many  intelligent  persons  who  had 
associated  with  Lincoln  in  his  earlier  years 
were  never,  to  the  end,  able  to  see  anything 
but  what  may  be  called  their  first  mental 
photographs  of  him,  badly  taken,  on  defec- 
tive negatives.  These  were  at  best  but  sur- 
face pictures  and  contained  only  something 
of  the  man  as  he  was  seen  before,  say,  the 
year  1858.  One  of  his  oldest,  most  inti- 


184  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

mate  professional  associates  and  latest 
biographers  [Herndon],  for  instance,  was 
hardly  acquainted  with  him  at  all  [in  his 
later  life],  for  he  did  not  see  him  after  1860. 
[The  last  time  was  February  10,  1861.] 
That  he  was  of  God's  appointment  must 
be  apparent  to  any  man  whose  creed  con- 
tains a  confession  of  a  living  God,  mindful 
of  human  affairs."115 

HONORABLE   ISAAC   N.    ARNOLD 

HONORABLE  ISAAC  N.  ARNOLD,  an  inti- 
mate friend,  for  several  years  a  member  of 
Congress  from  Illinois,  in  his  Life  of  Lin- 
coln, says:  "No  more  reverent  Christian 
than  he  ever  sat  in  the  executive  chair,  not 
excepting  Washington.  .  .  .  From  the  time 
he  left  Springfield  to  his  death  he  not  only 
himself  continually  prayed  for  divine  as- 
sistance, but  continually  asked  the  prayers 
of  his  friends  for  himself  and  his  country. 
.  .  .  Doubtless,  like  others,  he  passed 
through  periods  of  doubt  and  perplexity, 
but  his  faith  in  a  Divine  Providence  began 
at  his  mother's  knee,  and  ran  through  all 
the  changes  of  his  life.  .  .  .  When  the 
unbeliever  shall  convince  the  people  that 


THE  CHRISTIAN  185 

this  man,  whose  life  was  straightforward, 
clear,  and  honest,  was  a  sham  and  a 
hypocrite,  then,  but  not  before,  may  he 
make  the  world  doubt  his  Christianity."118 

FATHER   CHINIQUY 

FATHER  CHINIQUY,  who  knew  Mr.  Lin- 
coln in  Illinois,  and  visited  him  several 
times  in  the  White  House,  says:  "Lincoln 
had  spent  a  great  part  of  his  life  at  the 
school  of  Christ,  and  had  meditated  his 
sublime  teachings  to  an  extent  unsuspected 
by  the  world.  I  found  in  him  the  most 
perfect  type  of  Christianity  I  ever  met."117 

BISHOP  SIMPSON 

BISHOP  MATTHEW  SIMPSON,  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  who  was  one  of 
Mr.  Lincoln's  most  intimate  ministerial 
friends,  says,  "He  believed  in  Christ  as  the 
Saviour  of  sinners,  and  I  think  he  was 
sincere  in  trying  to  bring  his  life  in  harmony 
with  the  precepts  of  revealed  religion."118 

MR.    JOHN    HAY 

MR.  JOHN  HAY,  who  was  one  of  Presi- 
dent Lincoln's  private  secretaries,  and 
Secretary  of  State  under  President  Roose- 


186  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

velt,  in  an  address  at  the  100th  anniver- 
sary of  the  New  York  Avenue  Presbyterian 
Church,  Washington,  D.  C.,  November  16, 
1903,  standing  beside  President  Roosevelt 
in  the  Lincoln  pew,  said:  "Whatever  is 
remembered  or  whatever  lost,  we  ought 
never  to  forget  that  Abraham  Lincoln,  one 
of  the  mightiest  masters  of  statecraft  that 
history  has  known,  was  also  one  of  the  most 
devoted  and  faithful  servants  of  Almighty 
God  who  have  ever  sat  in  the  high  places  of 
the  world.  From  that  dim  and  chilly  dawn 
when,  standing  on  a  railway  platform  in 
Springfield,  half  veiled  by  falling  snowflakes 
from  the  crowd  of  friends  and  neighbors  who 
had  gathered  to  wish  him  Godspeed  on  his 
momentous  journey,  he  acknowledged  his 
dependence  on  God  and  asked  for  their 
prayers,  to  that  sorrowful  yet  triumphant 
hour  when  he  went  to  his  account,  he  re- 
peated over  and  over  in  every  form  of  speech 
his  faith  and  trust  in  that  Almighty  Power 
who  rules  the  fate  of  men  and  nations."119 

APPROVED  OF  GOD 

PRESIDENT  McKiNLEY,  in  a  speech  before 
the  Marquette  Club  in  Chicago,  February 


THE  CHRISTIAN  187 

12,  1896,  said  concerning  Lincoln:  "The 
war  had  brought  them  [the  people]  and  him 
[Lincoln]  to  a  nearer  realization  of  our 
absolute  dependence  upon  a  Higher  Power, 
and  had  quickened  his  conceptions  of  duty 
more  acutely  than  the  public  could  realize. 
The  purposes  of  God,  working  through  the 
ages,  were,  perhaps,  more  clearly  revealed 
to  him  than  to  any  other."  Again  he  said: 
"He  was  the  greatest  man  of  his  time, 
especially  approved  of  God  for  the  work 
He  gave  him  to  do.  History  abundantly 
proves  his  superiority  as  a  leader,  and 
establishes  his  constant  reliance  upon  a 
Higher  Power  for  guidance  and  support." 

INSPIRED  OF  GOD 

MR.  HENRY  WATTERSON,  in  his  oration 
before  the  Lincoln  Union  of  Chicago,  Feb- 
ruary 12,  1895,  on  Abraham  Lincoln  as  a 
Man  Inspired  of  God,  pays  an  eloquent 
tribute  to  Lincoln's  Christian  faith  and  his 
following  divine  guidance.  Says  he: 

"Born  as  lowly  as  the  Son  of  God,  in  a 
hovel;  reared  in  penury,  squalor,  with  no 
gleam  of  light  or  fair  surroundings;  with- 
out graces,  actual  or  acquired;  without 


188  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

name  or  fame  or  official  training;  it  was 
reserved  for  this  strange  being,  late  in  life, 
to  be  snatched  from  obscurity,  raised  to 
supreme  command  at  a  supreme  moment, 
and  intrusted  with  the  destiny  of  a  nation. 

"The  great  leaders  of  his  party,  the  most 
experienced  and  accomplished  men  of  the 
day,  were  made  to  stand  aside;  were  sent 
to  the  rear,  while  this  fantastic  figure  was 
led  by  unseen  hands  to  the  front  and  given 
the  reins  of  power.  .  .  .  That,  during  four 
years,  carrying  with  them  such  a  weight 
of  responsibility  as  the  world  never  wit- 
nessed before,  he  filled  the  vast  space 
allotted  him  in  the  eyes  and  actions  of 
mankind,  is  to  say  that  he  was  inspired  of 
God,  for  nowhere  else  could  he  have  ac- 
quired the  wisdom  and  the  virtue. 

"Where  did  Shakespeare  get  his  genius? 
Where  did  Mozart  get  his  music?  Whose 
hand  smote  the  lyre  of  the  Scottish  plough- 
man, and  stayed  the  life  of  the  German 
priest?  God,  God,  and  God  alone;  and  as 
surely  as  these  were  raised  up  by  God,  in- 
spired by  God  was  Abraham  Lincoln;  and 
a  thousand  years  hence,  no  drama,  no 
tragedy,  no  epic  poem  will  be  filled  with 


THE  CHRISTIAN  189 

greater  wonder,  or  be  followed  by  mankind 
with  deeper  feeling,  than  that  which  tells 
the  story  of  his  life  and  death.  If  Lincoln 
was  not  inspired  of  God,  then  there  is  no 
such  thing  on  earth  as  special  providence 
or  the  interposition  of  divine  power  in  the 
affairs  of  men." 

His  CROWNING  GLORY 

THE  REV.  DR.  BISHOP,  quoted  before, 
who  had  special  opportunity  to  know  Mr. 
Lincoln's  religious  belief,  exclaims:  "Let  the 
nation  know — let  the  peopled  world  that 
beheld  in  him  'the  Great  Commoner,'  the 
incarnation  of  the  ideal  republic,  know — 
let  the  coming  generations,  looking  back  to 
him  as  the  representative  of  the  divine  idea 
of  free  government,  know  that  the  crown- 
ing glory  of  Abraham  Lincoln  was  the 
grandeur  of  his  Christian  character.  His 
faith  in  the  living  God  was  the  supreme 
element  in  his  giant  personality." 


190  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


A  TRANSFIGURED  LIFE 

Lincoln  has  spoken  for  himself  with  no 
uncertain  sound,  and  no  man  dare  dispute 
it.  His  friends  have  borne  testimony.  His 
admirers  have  seen  and  recognized  his  sub- 
lime faith  and  trust  in  God.  Through  all 
of  his  life  there  was  a  spirit  of  deep  rever- 
ence. As  the  cares  and  responsibilities  of 
life  and  of  public  duty  came  upon  him  with 
ever-increasing  weight  he  grew  more  and 
more  into  the  image  of  the  Master.  Every 
word  and  every  act  of  his  later  life  was 
cumulative  evidence  that  he  was  no  longer 
conformed  to  this  world,  but  that  he  was 
being  transformed  day  by  day  into  the 
sweetness  and  purity  and  perfection  of  the 
Father.  His  whole  life  was  a  gradual 
crystallization  of  a  soul  into  the  marvelous 
beauty,  transparency,  and  glory  of  Divin- 
ity Himself. 

RELIGIOUS  DEVELOPMENT 

It  is  impossible  to  analyze  the  develop- 
ment of  his  religious  life,  but  there  are 


THE  CHRISTIAN  191 

marked  stages  which  may  be  designated  as 
follows : 

From  1809  to  1818,  a  period  of  nine 
years,  represents  his  mother's  training. 
From  1818  to  1831,  a  period  of  thirteen 
years,  might  be  called  drifting.  The  next 
four  years,  from  1831  to  1835,  was  the 
period  of  questioning.  Then  for  thirteen 
years,  from  1835  to  1848,  his  religious  life 
seem  to  be  characterized  by  indifferent- 
ism.  The  ten  years  from  1848  to  1858  are 
characterized  by  the  honest  doubter  seek- 
ing the  true  light.f  From  1858  to  1862,  a 
period  of  four  years,  there  are  unmistakable 
evidences  of  a  great  soul  coming  into  full 
fellowship  with  his  Master.  The  next  three 
years,  1862  to  1865,  he  was,  in  the  highest 
meaning  of  the  term,  a  true  follower  of 
Jesus  Christ.  While  the  last  months  of 
his  life  are  distinctly  marked  by  the  deep- 
ening  of  his  spiritual  life. 

WELL  DONE 

Lincoln  developed  perfect  trust  in  God. 
He  was  always  a  believer  in  the  existence 
of  God.  He  was  always  reverent  toward 


192  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

the  Bible.     When  a  child,  he  said  his  eve- 
ning prayer  at  his  mother's  knee: 

Now  I  lay  me  down  to  sleep, 

I  pray  Thee,  Lord,  my  soul  to  keep. 

If  I  should  die  before  I  wake, 

I  pray  Thee,  Lord,  my  soul  to  take. 

When  a  lad,  he  received  a  dying  mother's 
blessing;  when  a  young  man,  he  vowed  to 
the  "Eternal  God"  that  if  the  opportunity 
came  he  would  give  slavery  a  crushing 
blow;  when  he  accepted  the  nomination  for 
President,  he  implored  "the  assistance  of 
Divine  Providence";  when  elected,  he  saw 
in  the  result  "the  providence  of  God"; 
when  he  left  his  home  at  Springfield  to  go 
to  Washington,  he  declared  that  "without 
the  assistance  of  the  Almighty  I  must  fail"; 
when  he  delivered  his  inaugural  address,  he 
expressed  a  "firm  reliance  upon  Him  who 
has  never  yet  forsaken  this  favored  land"; 
when  the  battle  of  Gettysburg  was  raging, 
upon  his  knees  he  prayed  "mightily"  for 
victory,  and  told  the  Lord  "that  this  was 
His  war,  and  our  cause  His  cause";  in  his 
second  inaugural  he  declared  his  "firmness 
in  the  right  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the 
right" ;  in  his  last  public  address,  three  days 


THE  CHRISTIAN  193 

before  his  death,  his  first  words  were  those 
of  recognition  of  Him  "from  whom  all 
blessings  flow";  the  day  before  he  was 
shot  he  said  to  his  wife,  "With  God's 
blessing,  we  may  hope";  in  the  last  con- 
scious moment  of  his  life,  he  expressed  a 
desire  to  visit  old  Jerusalem  and  "see  the 
places  hallowed  by  the  footprints  of  the 
Saviour." 

He  had  intended,  as  he  said,  to  make  a 
public  profession  of  religion  by  uniting  with 
some  church;  but,  alas!  the  public  profes- 
sion was  deferred  too  long.  The  assassin's 
bullet  came  all  too  soon.  "After  four 
tempestuous  years,  in  the  hour  of  victory, 
in  an  instant,  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye, 
as  it  were,  his  career  crystallized  into  that 
pure  white  fame  which  belongs  only  to  the 
martyr  for  justice,  law,  and  liberty,"  and 
he  who  had  "felt  the  great  throb  of  the 
plain  people's  hearts  every  hour  that  he 
was  in  the  White  House,"  the  best-loved 
man  that  ever  trod  this  continent,  was 
"translated  by  a  bloody  martyrdom  to  his 
crown  of  glory,  his  soul  soaring  upward  to 
the  God  from  whom  it  sprang,  holding  in 
his  right  hand  four  millions  of  broken 


194  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

fetters,"  clinking  music  more  sweet  and 
thrilling  than  harps  of  gold  struck  with 
celestial  hands,  receiving  the  approbation 
of  the  heavenly  Father  whom  he  loved, 
"Well  done,  thou  good  and  faithful  servant. 
Thou  hast  been  faithful  over  a  few  things; 
I  will  make  thee  ruler  over  many  things. 
Enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord." 


"The  greatest  character  since  Christ" — John  Hay. 
"HE  WAS  A  CHRIST  IN  MINIATURE" — Tolstoy. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  195 


SOURCES  OF  INFORMATION 

*  Complete  Works  of  Abraham  Lincoln:  Speeches, 
Letters,  and  State  Papers.  John  G.  Nicolay  and 
John  Hay,  1905.  This  is  the  largest  and  most 
complete  work  published,  although  there  are  many 
authentic  letters  not  found  in  it. 

In  the  following  references,  the  full  name  of  the 
book  is  given  only  once,  as  a  rule.  Afterward 
the  author's  name  is  used. 

The  year  in  which  the  book  was  published  is 
given. 

The  numbers  correspond  to  the  index  numbers 
through  the  book.  v 

1  The  True  Abraham  Lincoln,  William  E.  Curtis, 

1903,  p.  374. 

2  Life  of  Lincoln,  Wm.  H.  Herndon  and  Jesse  W. 

Weik,  1892,  Vol.  I,  p.  21. 
8  Abraham  Lincoln,  Charles  Carleton  Coffin,  1893, 

p.  20. 
4  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  John  G.  Holland,  1866, 

p.  436. 
8  Coffin,  p.  23. 

6  Herndon  and  Weik,  Vol.  I,  p.  24. 

7  Herndon  and  Weik,  Vol.  I,  p.  25. 

8  The   Pioneer   Boy,   William   M.   Thayer,    1866, 

pp.  137,  139. 

9  Holland,  p.  23. 
"Holland,  p.  30. 


196  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

11  Abraham  Lincoln:  A  History,  John  G.  Nicolay 

and  John  Hay,  1890,  Vol.  I,  p.  35. 

12  Herndon  and  Weik,  Vol.  I,  p.  19. 

13  Thayer,  pp.   124,   125.     Also,  Abraham  Lincoln 

and  the  Downfall  of  American  Slavery,  Noah 
Brooks,  1903,  p.  24. 

14  Holland,  p.  31. 

15  Life  of  Lincoln,  Ida  M.  Tarbell,  1902,  Vol.  I,  p.  42. 

16  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  Henry  Ketcham,  1901, 

p.  22;  Herndon  and  Weik,  Vol.  I,  p.  47. 

17  The  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  Isaac  N.  Arnold, 

1885,  p.  31. 

18  Herndon  and  Weik,  Vol.  I,  p.  64. 

19  Several  versions  are  given.  Some  authors  leave 

out  the  word  "God,"  and  others  put  the  phrase, 
"by  the  Eternal  God,"  at  the  close  of  the 
sentence. 

20  McNamar  was  his  real  name,  McNeil  an  assumed 

name.  Herndon  and  Weik,  Vol.  I,  p.  123. 
Samuel  Hill,  John  McNeil  [McNamar]  and 
Abraham  Lincoln  were  all  three  infatuated 
with  Miss  Rutledge,  who  was  attending  Mentor 
Graham's  school.  Herndon  and  Weik,  Vol.  I, 
pp.  122-127. 

21  Lincoln  Scrapbook,  Library  of  Congress,  Wash- 

ington, D.  C.,  p.  64.  Mr.  B.  F.  Irwin,  to  whom 
this  letter  was  written,  had  been  personally 
acquainted  with  Mr.  Lincoln  for  twenty  years 
and  was  often  in  his  office.  Mr.  W.  H.  Herndon, 
who,  it  seems,  first  published  the  story  that 


THE  CHRISTIAN  197 

Mr.  Lincoln  wrote  an  essay  on  "Infidelity," 
says,  "I  assert  this  on  my  own  knowledge, 
and  on  my  own  veracity." — Lamon's  Life  of 
Lincoln,  p.  489.  Mr.  Herndon  was  only  a  boy 
fifteen  years  old  at  that  time,  living  nearly 
twenty  miles  from  New  Salem.  The  reader 
may  judge  for  himself. 

22  Herndon  and  Weik,  Vol.  I,  p.  158. 

23  Tarbell,  Vol.  II,  p.  31. 

24  It   was  Joshua   Speed's   mother   who   presented 

Lincoln  with  an  Oxford  Bible.  He  was  a 
brother  of  Miss  Mary  Speed.  Speed  was 
Lincoln's  roommate  at  Springfield  for  four 
years,  and  the  most  intimate  friend  he  ever  had. 

25  Tarbell,  Vol.  II,  p.  31.        v 

26  Lincoln  Scrapbook,  Library  of  Congress,  p.  64. 

27  The  Rev.  William  Bishop,  D.D.,  Salina,  Kansas, 

Address  on  Lincoln's  Birthday,  February  12, 
1897,  which  was  published  in  a  local  paper. 

28  The    Later    Life    and    Religious    Sentiments    of 

Abraham  Lincoln,  Rev.  James  A.  Reed,  pastor 
First  Presbyterian  Church,  Springfield,  Illinois, 
published  in  Scribner's  Monthly,  July,  1873, 
p.  333. 

29  Scribner's  Monthly,  July,  1873,  the  Rev.  James 

A.  Reed. 

80  Daily  Illinois  State  Register,  Springfield,  Illinois, 
December  10,  1898.  Copy  in  possession  of  Miss 
Jeanette  E.  Smith,  granddaughter  of  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Smith. 


198  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

11  Scribner's  Monthly,  July,  1873,  p.  338.  The  Rev. 
James  Smith,  D.D.,  then  pastor  of  the  church, 
to  W.  H.  Herndon,  January  24,  1867.  Letter 
first  published  in  Springfield  Journal,  March  12, 
1867. 

83  Abraham  Lincoln  and  the  Downfall  of  American 

Slavery,  Noah  Brooks,  1894,  p.  126. 

"Lincoln,  the  Citizen,  Henry  C.  Whitney,  1908, 
p.  327,  the  famous  "Lost  Speech." 

84  Lincoln  Scrapbook,  Library  of  Congress,  p.  64. 

K  Six  Months  at  the  White  House,  Frank  B.  Car- 
penter, 1866,  p.  125. 

"  Holland,  p.  237. 

87  Lincoln,  the  Citizen,  Henry  C.  Whitney,  p.  202. 
Life  of  Lincoln,  Ida  M.  Tarbell,  Vol.  II,  p. 
200.  On  the  occasion  referred  to,  Judge  Gil- 
lespie  was  spending  the  night  with  Mr.  Lincoln 
at  the  latter's  home  in  Springfield,  Illinois. 
This  incident  was  related  by  Judge  Gillespie's 
daughter,  Mrs.  Josephine  Gillespie  Prickett, 
living  at  Edwardsville,  Illinois. 

88  Characteristic  Anecdotes  of  Lincoln,  John  G. 
Nicolay,  by  his  daughter,  Helen  Nicolay,  Cen- 
tury Magazine,  September,  1912,  p.  700.  The 
Rev.  Hale  was  pastor  of  the  Second  Presby- 
terian Church,  Springfield,  Illinois,  for  a  quarter 
of  a  century.  He  offered  the  prayer  at  the 
burial  service  of  Lincoln,  May  4,  1865. 

89  Weekly  Illinois  State  Journal,  Springfield,  Illi- 
nois, February  13,  1861. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  199 

There  is  another  version  of  the  address,  which 
was  given  to  the  papers  at  the  time  by  a  news- 
paper correspondent,  Henry  J.  Villard. 

The  speech  was  extemporized.  Both  versions  are 
practically  the  same  in  thought,  but  the  ver- 
sion used  in  this  book  seems  more  like  Mr. 
Lincoln's  style  of  language. 

40  Words  of  Lincoln,  O.  H.  Oldroyd,  1895,  p.  56. 

41  Life  and  Public  Services  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 

Henry  J.  Raymond,  1865,  p.  149. 

42  Raymond,  p.  151. 

43  Raymond,  p.  152. 

44  Recollections  of  President  Lincoln  and  His  Cabinet, 

L.  E.  Chittenden,  1891,  p.  76. 

45  Lincoln  Scrapbook,  Library  of  Congress,  Letter 

of  Rev.  N.  W.  Miner,  August  1,  1871,  p.  52. 
Mrs.  Lincoln  told  it  to  Rev.  Miner.  Mr. 
Miner  was  pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  Church 
in  Springfield,  Illinois.  He  first  became  ac- 
quainted with  Mr.  Lincoln  in  1855.  He  lived 
on  the  same  street,  on  the  opposite  corner, 
and  saw  him  almost  daily  when  at  home  until 
he  went  to  Washington. 

48  Herndon  and  Weik,  Vol.  II,  p.  223.  Mrs.  Lin- 
coln told  W.  H.  Herndon  in  interview  in  Spring- 
field, Illinois,  September  4,  1866. 

47  Behind  the  Scenes,  Elizabeth  Keckley,  1868,  p.  103. 
She  was  thirty  years  a  slave  and  four  years 
in  the  White  House,  as  modiste  and  friend  to 
Mrs.  Lincoln. 


'200  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

48  Lincoln   Scrapbook,  Library  of  Congress,  Letter 

of  Mrs.  Rebecca  R.  Pomeroy,  p.  54.  Mrs. 
Pomeroy  was  about  fifty  years  old,  living  at 
Chelsea,  Massachusetts.  She  had  just  buried 
her  husband,  the  last  of  her  family.  She  was 
cultured  and  graceful,  devoutly  religious,  a 
member  of  the  Baptist  Church.  There  was  a 
call  for  nurses  for  the  soldiers'  hospitals  in 
Washington.  Mrs.  Pomeroy  felt  that  it  was  an 
opening  of  Providence,  volunteered  for  service, 
and  was  accepted.  After  she  had  been  there  a 
few  weeks,  she  was  selected  to  nurse  President 
Lincoln's  children.  Willie  died,  but  Thomas, 
known  as  "Tad,"  recovered.  At  Mr.  Lincoln's 
request,  Mrs.  Pomeroy  stayed  at  the  White 
House  several  months  after  the  boy's  recovery. 

49  Carpenter,  pp.  117-119. 

60  Lincoln   Scrapbook,    Library   of   Congress,   Rev. 

N.  W.  Miner,  August  1,  1871,  p.  52. 

61  North  American  Review,  December,  1896,  p.  667, 

James  F.  Wilson. 

52  Carpenter,  p.  282. 

53  Sermons  on  the  Death  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  with 

Funeral  Sermon  at  the  White  House  by  Rev. 
Dr.  Gurley,  1865,  p.  23. 

64  Complete  Works  of  Abraham  Lincoln,   Nicolay 

and  Hay,  Vol.  X,  p.  149,  foot-note. 

65  Lincoln   Scrapbook,    Library   of   Congress,    Mrs. 

Rebecca  R.  Pomeroy,  p.  54.  Referred  to  on 
p.  80,  as  "A  Christian  Nurse." 


THE  CHRISTIAN  201 

58  The  author  called  upon  Mr.  Scoville  at  his  law 
office  in  Philadelphia  on  October  29,  1912.  He 
confirmed  the  accuracy  of  the  story  as  here 
given,  saying  it  is  what  his  grandmother  told 
him. 

In  reply  to  a  letter  from  the  Rev.  David  G. 
Downey,  D.D.,  Book  Editor  of  The  Methodist 
Book  Concern,  New  York  city,  December  13, 
1912,  Mr.  Scoville  wrote:  "Dr.  Johnson  showed 
me  his  manuscript  in  regard  to  the  Lincoln 
episode.  I  told  him  that  this  story  had  been 
related  to  me  by  my  grandmother,  Mrs.  Henry 
Ward  Beecher,  and  I  had  no  further  knowledge 
as  to  its  truth  than  that.  It  has  been  stren- 
uously denied  and  also  defended.  It  has  always 
seemed  to  me  to  be  a  perfectly  possible  situa- 
tion. It  has  never,  however,  been  corroborated 
by  any  of  the  members  of  the  family.  It 
rests  entirely  upon  the  statement  of  Mrs. 
Beecher  in  her  old  age." 

57  Lincoln   Scrapbook,    Library   of   Congress,   Mrs. 

Rebecca  R.  Pomeroy,  p.  54.     Referred  to  on 
p.  80  as  "A  Christian  Nurse." 

58  Carpenter,  p.  89;  Holland,  p.  394.     This  incident 

is  related  both  by  Secretary  Chase  and  Secretary 
Welles  in  their  published  diaries. 

58  Scribner's  Monthly,  July,  1873,  p.  342,  the  Rev. 
J.  A.  Reed. 

80  Life  on  the  Circuit  with  Lincoln,  Henry  C.  Whit- 
ney, 1892,  p.  595. 


202  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

61  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  Patriot  and  Christian,  Dr. 
O.  F.  Presbrey,  January  15,  1900,  the  only  one 
of  the  seven  living  at  that  time. 

82  The  Religion  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  Charles  H.  T. 
Collis,  1900,  p.  23.  Mr.  Munsell  had  known 
Mr.  Lincoln  since  he  [Munsell]  was  fifteen 
years  old.  Mr.  Lincoln  often  stopped  at  his 
father's  home. 

68  Men  and  Things  I  Saw  in  Civil  War  Days,  Gen- 
eral James  F.  Rusling,  1899,  p.  15. 

M  Lincoln   Scrapbook,    Library   of   Congress,   Mrs. 

Rebecca  R.  Pomeroy,  p.  54.     Referred  to  on 

p.  80  as  "A  Christian  Nurse." 
«  HoUand,  p.  435. 
M  Anecdotes  and  Reminiscences,  Frank  B.  Carpenter 

(in  Life  of  Lincoln,  H.  J.  Raymond),  1865,  p.  732. 

87  Curtis,  p.  383. 

88  Homiletic  Review,  1909,  Vol.  LVII,  p.  156. 
w  Curtis,  p.  385. 

70  New  York  Daily  Tribune,  April  30,  1870,  Letter 

of   Rev.    John   Tyler,    Newark,    New   Jersey, 
April  23,  1870. 

71  Scribner's  Monthly,  July,  1873,  p.  340,  the  Rev. 

J.  A.  Reed. 
"Fifty   Years   in   the   Church   of   Rome,   Father 

Chiniquy,  1886,  p.  693. 
78  Carpenter,  p.  209. 

74  Chittenden,  p.  445. 

75  Holland,  p.  432. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  203 

"The  Independent,  1900,  p.  435,  Helen  Everston 
Smith,  who  was  one  of  the  company. 

77  The  Lincoln   Memorial   Album   of   Immortelles, 

Osborn  H.  Oldroyd,  1883,  p.  254. 

78  Chiniquy,  pp.  706-710.     Everyone  ought  to  read 

Chapters  LX  and  LXI,  pp.  668-735,  in  Chin- 
iquy's  Fifty  Years  in  the  Church  of  Rome. 
It  is  a  most  remarkable  story. 

79  Chittenden,  p.  382. 

80  Mrs.  Eliza  P.  Gurney,  the  same  lady  mentioned 

on  p.  97,  in  "Reply  to  Quakers."  Some  authors 
have  confused  the  name  Gurney  with  Gurley 
(Mr.  Lincoln's  pastor).  This  probably  accounts 
for  the  confusion  in  dates  by  several  authors. 
The  dates  here  given  ares  authentic. 
"Lincoln,  the  Citizen,  Henry  C.  Whitney,  1908, 
p.  201. 

K  Lincoln's  Use  of  the  Bible,  S.  Trevena  Jackson, 
1909,  p.  8. 

w  Curtis,  p.  387. 

"Harper's  Magazine,   1865,  Vol.  XXXI,  p.  226, 

Noah  Brooks. 
88  Curtis,  p.  379. 
"  Chittenden,  pp.  448-450. 

87  Keckley,  p.  118. 

88  Carpenter  (in  Raymond),  p.  734.    This  incident  is 

taken  out  of  its  chronological  order.    It  occurred 
hi  1862. 
88  Carpenter,  p.  261. 


204  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

90  Lincoln  Scrapbook,  Library  of  Congress,  Mrs. 
Rebecca  R.  Pomeroy,  p.  54.  Referred  to  on 
p.  80  as  "A  Christian  Nurse." 

81  Life  and  Times  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  L.  P. 
Brockett,  1865,  p.  743,  Sermon  by  Rev.  Joseph 
P.  Thompson,  D.D.,  Broadway  Tabernacle, 
New  York  City,  April  30,  1865. 

**  There  were  two  Bixby  families  in  Massachusetts 
represented  in  the  war.  Five  Bixbys  were 
killed,  and  it  was  thought  they  were  the  sons 
of  Mrs.  Lydia  Bixby.  Afterward  three  of  her 
sons  returned  (she  had  six  in  the  war). — "A 
Rare  Lincoln  Letter  and  Its  Curious  Story," 
Boston  Sunday  Globe,  April  12,  1908. 

83  Harper's  Magazine,    1865,  Vol.   XXXI,   p.   226, 

Noah  Brooks. 

84  Harper's  Magazine,   1865,  Vol.  XXXI,  p.  226, 

Noah  Brooks. 

96  Holland,  p.  439. 

86  Holland,  p.  440. 

87  The  Globe,  New  York  City,  February  13,  1911, 

Rev.  Ferdinand  C.  Iglehart,  D.D.  In  a  letter 
to  the  author,  he  says:  "Dr.  Hill  was  a  member 
of  my  Official  Board  at  Delaware  Avenue  M.  E. 
Church,  in  Buffalo,  while  I  was  pastor,  and  one 
of  the  leading  practitioners  of  the  city.  The 
incident  is  absolutely  authentic,  as  the  story 
came  directly  from  the  lips  of  the  reliable  man 
to  whom  Lincoln  spoke  the  words  of  beauty  and 
Christian  faith." 


THE  CHRISTIAN  205 

98  Scrapbook. 

99  Eulogy    of   Abraham   Lincoln,    Hon.    Henry   C. 

Deming,  before  Legislature  of  Connecticut, 
June  8,  1865,  p.  42. 

100  Carpenter,  p.  187. 

101  Life  on  the  Circuit  with  Lincoln,  Henry  C.Whit- 

ney, p.  281. 

102  Scribner's    Monthly,    July,    1873,    Letter    from 

Noah  Brooks  to  the  Rev.  J.  A.  Reed. 

103  Scribner's  Monthly,  July,  1873,  p.  339. 

104  Notebook. 

106  Lincoln  Memorial  Album,  O.  H.  Oldroyd,  1883, 
p.  366. 

106  Carpenter,  p.  191. 

107  Incidents  and  Anecdotes  of  the  War,  Admiral 

Porter,  p.  295. 

108  Carpenter  (in  Raymond),  p.  735.     Quoted  in  the 

works  of  a  score  of  historians  and  biographers,, 
and  almost  universally  accepted  as  an  historic 
fact.  However,  it  is  only  fair  to  history  to 
say  that  no  Cabinet  meeting  was  held  on  the 
day  the  news  was  received  of  Lee's  surrender. 
Mr.  Lincoln  returned  to  Washington  from 
Richmond  on  Palm  Sunday,  April  9.  The 
news  of  Lee's  surrender  was  received  later  on 
the  same  day.  There  was  no  Cabinet  meeting 
that  night.  It  seems  that  Secretary  Welles  was 
the  only  Cabinet  officer  who  saw  Mr.  Lincoln 
that  evening.  The  incident  related  probably 
occurred  at  an  informal  gathering  of  the 
Cabinet  the  following  morning. 


206  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

108  Scrapbook 

110  Life  and  Principles  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  Hon. 

Schuyler  Colfax,  1865,  p.  25. 

111  "Cartland's  Southern  Heroes,"  quoted  by  Henry 

Bryan  Binns  in  his  Abraham  Lincoln,  p.  321. 

112  Life  on  the  Circuit  with  Lincoln,  Henry  C.  Whit- 

ney, 1892,  p.  278. 

118  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  Isaac  N.  Arnold,  1885, 
p.  429.  Mr.  Arnold  and  Mr.  Lincoln  had  been 
personal  friends  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  hav- 
ing practiced  law  together  in  Springfield,  Illinois. 

114  Lincoln  Scrapbook,  Library  of  Congress,  Rev. 

N.  W.  Miner,  p.  52.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Miner  visited 
Mr.  Lincoln  and  family  at  the  White  House 
and  often  visited  Mrs.  Lincoln  after  the 
President's  death.  He  was  one  of  the 
officiating  clergymen  at  the  burial  of  Mr. 
Lincoln,  reading  the  Scriptures  at  the  grave, 
May  4,  1865. 

115  The  author  called  upon  Mr.  William  O.  Stoddard 

at  his  home  in  Madison,  New  Jersey,  on  February 
25,  1913.  He  indorsed  the  quotation  as  given. 

"•  Arnold,  pp.  446-8. 

117  Chiniquy,  p.  711. 

118  Our  Martyr  President:  Voices  from  the  Pulpit 

of  New  York  and  Brooklyn — Funeral  Oration 
by  Bishop  Simpson,  1865,  p.  404. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  207 

119  Centennial  Volume,  New  York  Avenue  Presby- 
terian Church,   Washington,  D.  C.,  1903,  p.  97. 

t  It  is  this  period  to  which  we  must  date  some  of 
his  deepest  convictions.  Indeed,  his  pastor, 
Dr.  Smith,  seems  to  think  that  he  was  gen- 
uinely converted. 


208  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


DOCTRINAL  BELIEFS  AND  RELIGIOUS 
HABITS 

The  following  references  will  be  found  helpful  to 
those  who  may  wish  to  make  a  more  careful  study 
of  Mr.  Lincoln's  doctrinal  beliefs,  as  revealed  in  his 
utterances,  and  of  his  religious  habits,  as  shown  by 
authentic  incidents. 

ADAM'S  FALL,  33,  63 
ATONEMENT,  complete,  33,  63 

BIBLE 

First  book  he  learned  to  read,  26 

"So  long  as  the  Bible  shall  be  read,"  35 

Constant  reader  of,  50 

Convinced  of  divine  authority,  51,  52 

Address  on,  58 

The  Bateman  interview  on,  64 

Carries  a  pocket  New  Testament,  65 

Reads  story  of  Gethsemane  on  his  knees,  68 

Statement  to  the  Rev.  Hale,  69 

The  Bible  the  word  of  God,  134 

Reads  Deuteronomy  3.  22-27,  137 

Reading  Bible  at  Soldiers'  Home,  148 

Studies  Bible  with  Cruden's  Concordance,  149 

Gospels,  praises  simplicity  of,  149 

Sermon  on  the  mount,  149 

Lord's  Prayer,  149 

Repeat  whole  chapters  from  memory,  149 


THE  CHRISTIAN  209 

Conversation  with  Chittenden,  149 

God's  Book,  152 

Internal  evidence  of  authenticity,  152 

Reads  Job,  155 

Reading  a  well-worn  Testament,  156 

Reads  Bible  every  morning,  156 

Quotations  from  Bible,  157 

Reads  his  mother's  Bible,  157 

Likes  Psalms  best,  157 

His  mother's  wish,  157 

Reply  to  colored  people,  157 

Book  of  God,  158 

Beatitudes  of  Jesus,  172 

CHRIST 

Christ  is  God,  66  y 

Ambassador  of  Christ,  121 
Christ  advises  to  be  ready,  137 
Crucified  One,  140 
Christ  died  for  the  world's  sake,  140 
Hope  of  immortality  through  Christ,  170 

CHRISTIAN 

Highly  developed  Christian  attainment,  17 
Believes  he  was  a  true  Christian,  116 
"I  hope  I  am  a  Christian,"  169 
Opinion  of  Henry  C.  Whitney,  170 
No  more  reverent  Christian,  184 
Most  perfect  type  of  Christianity,  185 
Believed  in  Christ,  185 
Christian  character  his  crowning  glory,  189 
"A  Christ  in  miniature,"  194 


210  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

CHURCH 
Attends  New  York  Avenue  Presbyterian  Church, 

Washington,  13,  167 
Devout  worshiper,  13 
Attends  weekly  prayer  meeting,  13 
Little  Abe  attended  "meetings,"  22 
Never  lived  where  there  was  a  church  until  nearly 

twenty-six  years  old,  31 
Greatest  institution,  36 
Attends  camp  meeting,  36 
Pew  in  First  Presbyterian  Church,  Springfield, 

41,  55 

Attends  Episcopal  church,  49 
Attends  revival,  56 
Sometimes  attended  First  Presbyterian  Church, 

Washington,  101 

Blesses  God  for  the  churches,  133 
Regular  attendant  at  church,  167 
Intended  to  unite  with  church,  169,  171 

CONFESSION  OF  FAITH 

Statement  of  Dr.  Gurley,  167 

Statement  of  Honorable  Henry  C.  Deming,  167 

CONVERSION 

Dr.  Smith's  statement,  51 

Seemed  changed  after  Willie's  death,  84 

"Process  of  crystallization,"  163 

Religious  experience,  169 

Speaks  of  change,  170 

Believed  his  heart  was  changed,  171 

Hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness,  172 

Consecrated  to  Christ  at  Gettysburg,  172 


THE  CHRISTIAN  211 

DEVIL 

False  suggestion  of,  39 
Temptation  of  Jesus  by,  135 

FAITH 

The  faith  which  sustained  him,  88 

The  justice  and  goodness  of  God,  89 

A  profound  conviction,  90 

Believes  in  the  purpose  and  will  of  God,  97 

Believes  in  control  of  a  Higher  Power,  102 

"God  will  bring  us  through  safe,"  110 

Believes  God  will  give  victory,  112,  115 

Faith  becomes  knowledge,  130 

God  controls  events,  131 

Places  whole  reliance  in  God,  135 

The  Almighty  using  His  own  means,  143 

Faith  in  God's  wisdom,  147 

God  will  let  him  know  what  to  do,  150 

Providence  will  protect  against  fatal  defeat,  154 

Firm  belief  in  an  over-ruling  Providence,  164 

"In  God  we  trust,"  180 

FATALIST,  not  a,  102 

GOD.    (See  names  of  the  Deity,  p.  214,  and  Index) 

GRACE 

"Throne  of  Grace,"  78 

"Redeeming  and  preserving  grace,"  108 

HEAVEN 

"Before  High  Heaven,"  38 
Message  to  dying  father,  58 
Little  Willie  in  heaven,  80 
"Choicest  bounties  of  Heaven,"  108 


212  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

"His  FACE  SHONE" 

Inner,  spiritual  lamp,  19 

"His  face  aglow,"  61 

Statement  of  Ex-Senator  James  F.  Wilson,  88 
HOLY  LAND,  wanted  to  visit,  172 
HOLY  SPIRIT,  invoke  influence  of,  124 

HYMNS 

He  most  loved,  28 
Repeat  from  memory,  149 

INFIDELITY 
Denies  the  charge,  41 
Indorses  sermon  against  atheism,  48 

JESUS,  "His  eternal  Son,"  140 
MERCY 

"Pray  for  His  mercy,"  77 

Refers  convict  to  mercy  of  God,  78 

"Mercy  of  God  alone  can  save  us,"  103 

"Genuine  repentance  will  lead  to  mercy,"  107 

"Mercy  in  preserving  our  national  existence,"  145 
PARDON 

Of  past  offences,  77 

"Genuine  repentance  will  lead  to,"  107 

Pray  for  forgiveness,  108 

"Pardon  of  our  national  sins,"  109 
PRAISE 

"Prayer  and  praise  go  together,"  116 
PRAYER 

Hears  mother's  prayers,  22 

Remembers  mother's  prayers,  22,  81 

Asked  to  be  remembered  in  prayer,  57 


THE  CHRISTIAN  213 

Belief  in  prayer,  67 

Asks  neighbors  to  pray  for  him,  70 

Prays  before  inauguration,  73 

Asks  people  to  pray  for  mercy,  77 

Prayer  brings  blessings,  78 

Sustained  by  prayers  of  God's  people,  85 

Asks  people  to  pray  for  spiritual  consolation  and 

divine  guidance,  86 
Visit  to  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  91 
Covenant  with  God,  95 
"I  have  sought  His  aid,"  97 
Often  prayed,  "Let  this  cup  pass,"  103 
Prayer  will  be  heard  and  answered,  109 
Prays  for  Battle  of  Gettysburg,  112 
Prays  for  Battle  of  Vicksburg,  114 
Prays  for  Battle  of  Port  Hudson,  115 
Asks  lady  friend  to  pray  for  him,  115 
Driven  upon  his  knees,  116 
Knelt  in  prayer,  117 
Asks  minister  to  pray,  118 
Asks  Bishop  Simpson  to  pray,  119 
Requests  many  to  pray  for  him,  120 
Daily  prayer,  120 
Prays  with  servants,  120 
Asks  prayer  for  soldiers,  145 
Asks  prayer  for  sick,  wounded,  orphans,  widows, 

145 
Stronger  and  more  confident  because  Christians 

are  praying,  153 
Bishop  Janes  prays,  164 
Referred  plans  to  God,  165 


214  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Sanitary  Commission  in  answer  to  prayer,  165 

Quakeress  praying  with  him,  175 

President  and  Cabinet  in  prayer,  178 

Asks  Quaker  lady  to  pray  with  him,  181 
PRAYER  MEETING,  attendant  at,  13 
PUNISHMENT 

For  sin,  63 

"For  our  presumptuous  sins,"  107 
REPENTANCE 

Confess  and  deplore  sins,  77 

"Christian  terms  of  repentance,"  90 

Confess  sins  in  humble  sorrow,  107 

Confess  national  sins  and  pray  for  forgiveness,  108 
SABBATH, 106 

Enjoys  orderly  observance,  99 

Suggests  highest  interest  of  the  life  to  come,  106 

SATAN 

"Satan's  rage,"  35 
Temptation  of  the  Saviour,  135 

SAVIOUR 

"The  Saviour,"  62 

Talked  to  servants  about,  120 

Tempted  by  Satan,  135 

"The  good  Saviour,"  157 

"He  loved  the  Saviour,"  171 

Wanted  to  see  His  footprints,  172 
VICARIOUS  SACRIFICE,  139 


THE  CHRISTIAN  215 


NAMES  OF  THE  DEITY 

In  referring  to  the  Deity,  Mr.  Lincoln  used  no 
less  than  forty-nine  designations,  This  is  very  sig- 
nificant, revealing,  as  it  does,  the  breadth  of  his 
thinking  and  showing  how  full  was  his  conception 
of  God  and  His  attributes. 

The  page  on  which  the  name  first  occurs  is  given. 

Almighty,  40 
Almighty  Architect,  38 
Almighty  Arm,  70 
Almighty  Father,  123  v 

Almighty  God,  71 
Almighty  Hand,  125 
Almighty  Power,  109 
Almighty  Ruler  of  Nations,  74 

Christ,  66 
Creator,  58 
Crucified  One,  140 

Disposer,  159 
Divine  Author,  179 
Divine  Being,  87 
Divine  Majesty,  124 
Divine  Providence,  60 
Divine  Will,  99 

Eternal  God,  30 


216  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Father,  79 

Father  in  Heaven,  147 

Father  of  Mercies,  145 

God,  33 

God  Almighty,  114 
God  of  Battles,  106 
God  of  Hosts,  62 
God  of  Nations,  105 
Governor,  152 

Heavenly  Father,  86 
Higher  Being,  165 
Higher  Power,  102 
Holy  Spirit,  124 

Jesus,  172 
Judge,  165 
Just,  140 

Lord,  32 

Maker,  58 

Maker  of  the  Universe,  71 

Master,  69 

Most  High,  99 

Most  High  God,  125 

Omniscient  Mind,  70 

Power,  108 
Providence,  88 

Ruler  of  the  Universe,  144 


THE  CHRISTIAN  217 


Saviour,  62 
Son,  140 
Son  of  God,  68 
Son  of  Mary,  140 
Supreme  Being,  71 


218  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


INDEX 

Adam's  Ale,  drinks,  63 

Akers,  the  Rev.  Peter,  D.D.,  heard,  36 

Albany,  New  York,  speech  at,  71 

Almighty  Architect,  the  soul's,  37 

Almighty,  assistance  of,  135 

Almighty,  directs  in  human  affairs,  149 

Ambassador  of  Christ,  121 

Approved  of  God,  186 

Arnold,  Honorable  Isaac  N.,  quotes  Mrs.  Lincoln, 

181;  testimony  of,  184 
Ashmun,  George,  letter  to,  64 
Assassinated,  rather  be,  72 
Assassination,  expected  it,  181 
Atonement,  transgression  and,  62 

Baptists,  reply  to,  134 
Bateman  interview,  64 
Battle  of  Bull  Run,  91;  Freedom,  60;  Gettysburg, 

112;  Port  Huron,  115;  Vicksburg,  114 
Beecher,  Henry  Ward,  visit  to,  91 
Better  man,  go  away  a,  162 
Bible,  Lincoln  and  the,  148;  an  Oxford,  present,  38; 

presented  by  colored   people,    157;   reads  every 

morning,  156;  reads  mother's,  157 
Bible  Society,  address  to,  57 
Bishop,  the  Rev.  William,  D.D.,  address  of,  43; 

quoted,  189 


THE  CHRISTIAN  219 

Bixby,  Mrs.  Lydia,  letter  to,  160 

Blockhead,  most  presumptuous,  162 

Books  read  when  a  boy,  26 

Boyhood,  16 

Brooks,  Noah,  tells  of  conversation,  162;  opinion 

of,  170 

Buffalo,  New  York,  speech  at,  71 
Bull  Run,  battle  of,  91 

Cabinet,  President  and,  in  prayer,  178 

Carpenter,  Frank  B.,  relates  incidents,  95,  168,  175 

Chicago  ministers,  delegation  of,  94 

Chiniquy,  Father,  Lincoln's  remark  to,  121;  inter- 
view with  Lincoln,  121;  testimony  of,  136 

Chittenden,  L.  E.,  testimony X>f,  149 

Christ,  ambassador  of,  121 

Christian  Commission,  members  call  on  Lincoln, 
163,  164 

Christian  Nurse,  see  "Nurse,  a  Christian" 

Christianity,  Essay  on,  30 

Church  attendance,  167 

Church  membership,  Lincoln  and,  167 

Clay,  Henry,  eulogy  of,  59 

Cogdal,  Isaac,  letter  from,  62 

"Cold  water,  cup  of,"  129 

Colfax,  Honorable  Schuyler,  speech  of,  180 

Colored  people  present  Bible,  157 

Columbus,  O.,  speech  at,  70 

Comforter,  Lincoln  the,  160 

Concordance,  uses  Cruden's,  149 

Condolence,  first  letter  of,  75 


220  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Congress,  message  to,   first,   75;  first  annual,   78; 

second   annual,    100;   third   annual,    127;   fourth 

annual,  163 

Controlled  by  events,  131 
Count  A.  de  Gasparin,  letter  to,  90 
Covenant  with  God,  95 
Convict,  refers  to  mercy  of  God,  78 
Crowning  glory,  his,  189 
"Cup  pass,  Let  this,"  103 

Dedicated  to  a  great  task,  126 

Deming,  Honorable  Henry  C.,  quoted,  167 

Destiny,  must  work  out,  84 

Development,  religious,  190 

Divine  help,  implores,  64 

Divine  will,  meditation  on,  98 

Dodge,  William  E.,  answer  to,  78 

Duty,  only  his,  163 

Early  training,  21 

Edwards,  Ninian  W.,  letter  from,  53 

Elkin,  Rev.  David,  preaches  mother's  funeral,  24 

Ellsworth,  Colonel,  letter  to  parents  of,  75 

Emancipation  Proclamation,  103 

Essay  on  Christianity,  30 

Evangelical  Lutherans,  reply  to,  87 

Faith,  his  great,  88 

Farewell  address,  70 

Fast-Day,  first  national,  76;  second,  107 

Father,  message  to  dying,  58 

Fessenden,  William  P.,  his  duty,  143 


THE  CHRISTIAN  221 

First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Springfield,  pew  in,  41 
Freedom,  the  battle  of,  60 
Friends,  testimony  of,  183 

Gethsemane,  in  the  garden  of,  68 

Gettysburg,  address  at,  126;  announcement  of  vic- 
tory, 111;  battle  of,  112 

Giddings,  J.  R.,  letter  to,  64 

Gillespie,  Judge  Joseph,  conversation  with  Lincoln, 
68 

God,  approval  of,  186;  best  gift,  157;  constant 
recognition  of,  127;  covenant  with,  95;  gracious 
favor  of,  104;  grateful  to  for  victory,  133;  for  re- 
election, 159;  inspired  of,  177;  "in  we  trust,"  180; 
on  our  side,  106;  providence  of,  121;  referred  plans 
to,  164;  responsibility  to,  84;  will  do  His  will,  94; 
"will  bring  us  through  safe,"  109;  voice  of,  104 

Gregg,  Dr.  David,  quoted,  104 

Gurley,  Rev.  Phineas,  D.D.,  arranged  pastor's  room 
for  Lincoln,  14;  Lincoln's  confession  of  faith,  167; 
opinion  of,  171 

Gurney,  Mrs.  Eliza  P.,  reply  to,  97;  letter  to,  146 

Hale,  Rev.  Albert,  Lincoln  said  to,  69 

Hall,  Rev.  Newman,  tells  of  Lincoln's  pardons,  128 

Hanks,  Dennis,  testimony  of,  26 

Hay,  John,  testimony  of,  185;  estimate  of  Lincoln, 

194 

Higher  Power,  control  of  a,  100 
Hill,  Dr.  John  Davidson,  tells  of  conversation  with 

Lincoln,  165 
Hill,  Samuel,  burned  letter,  34 


222  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Hodges,  A.  G.,  letter  to,  131 

Holland,  John  G.,  quoted,  25 

Human  affairs,  the  Almighty  directs  in,  149 

Human  freedom,  the  resurrection  of,  169 

Hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness,  172 

Hymns,  loved  most,  28;  could  repeat,  149 

Inaugural  address,  first,  74;  second,  173 

Inauguration,  prays  before,  73 

Indiana  Regiment,  speech  to,  87 

Infidelity,  denies,  41 

"In  God  we  trust,"  180 

Inspired  of  God,  187 

Irwin,  B.  F.,  article  on  "Religious  Belief,"  32,  41,  62 

Janes,  Bishop,  prays,  164 

Japan,  reply  to  Tycoon  of,  76 

Jay,  Mr.,  saw  President  reading  Testament,  156 

Jerusalem,  desired  to  see,  182 

Jesus  Christ,  worthy  of,  104 

Jesus,  loves,  172 

Job,  comfort  from  reading,  154 

Johnson,  Reverdy,  letter  to,  90 

Johnston,  John  D.,  letter  to,  58 

Journey  to  Washington,  70 

Knees,  driven  upon  his,  116 

Last  day,  181;  intercessory  prayer,  181;  speech,  180; 

words,  182 
Law  and  gospel,  167 


THE  CHRISTIAN  223 

Letter  from  Cogdal,  Isaac,  62;  Edwards,  Ninian  W., 
53;  Graham,  Mentor,  32;  Lewis,  Thomas,  53; 
Mostiller,  Thomas,  41;  Munsell,  Oliver,  109; 
Sunderland,  the  Rev.  Byron,  95;  Smith,  the  Rev. 
James,  52;  Tyler,  the  Rev.  John,  120 

Letter  of  condolence,  first,  75 

Letter  to  Ashmun,  George,  64;  Bixby,  Mrs.  Lydia, 
160;  Elkin,  the  Rev.  David,  24;  Ellsworth,  parents 
of  Colonel,  75;  Gasparin,  Count  A.  de,  90;  Gid- 
dings,  J.  R.,  64;  Grant,  General,  132;  Gurney, 
Mrs.  Eliza  P.,  146;  Hodges,  A.  G.,  131;  Johnson, 
Reverdy,  90;  Johnston,  John  D.,  58;  Mann,  Mrs. 
Horace,  132;  Owens,  Mary,  35;  Pickett,  George  E., 
41;  Reed,  Rev.  Alexander,  106;  Robertson,  George, 
60;  Speed,  Joshua,  39,  40;  Speed,  Mary,  38;  Ty- 
coon of  Japan,  76;  Weed/Thurlow,  175 

"Let  this  cup  pass,"  103 

Lord's  side,  on  the,  89 

Lost  speech,  60 

Loves  Jesus,  172 

Lutherans,  reply  to  Evangelical,  87 

Mann,  Mrs.  Horace,  letter  to,  132 

McCabe,  Chaplain  C.  C.,  quoted,  119 

McKaye,  Colonel,  visits  Lincoln,  126 

McKinley,  President,  speech  of,  186 

McNamar,  John,  letter  burned,  34 

Meditation  on  the  Divine  will,  98 

Message  to  Congress,  see  "Congress,  message  to" 

Message  to  dying  father,  58 

Methodists,  reply  to,  133 

Mind  made  up,  95 


224  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Miner,  the  Rev.  N.  W.,  visits  White  House,  84; 
Lincoln's  last  words,  182 

Minister  from  Central  New  York,  visits  Lincoln,  118 

Mistake,  no,  96 

Mix,  Captain,  Lincoln  reading  Bible,  156 

Mother,  Christian,  21;  reads  Bible,  22;  prays,  22; 
influence  on  Abe,  22,  24;  death  of,  23;  funeral  of, 
24;  last  message  of,  23;  President's  testimony 
concerning,  24,  81;  testimony  of  John  G.  Holland 
relative  to,  25;  Lincoln  remembers  her  prayers, 
22,  81;  he  reads  her  Bible,  157;  her  wish,  157 

Mostiller,  Thomas,  letter  from,  41 

Munsell,  Oliver  S.,  letter  from,  109 

National  prayer  meeting,  144 

Negro  woman,  befriends  a,  59 

New  York,  New  York,  speech  at,  71 

New  York  Avenue  Presbyterian  Church,  attendant 

at,  13,  167;  centennial  of,  186 
Newark,  New  Jersey,  speech  at,  72 
Nicolay,    John    G.,    relates    incident,    69;    Lincoln 

praying  man,  120;  praised  Gospels,  etc.,  149 
Nomination,  notified  of,  63 
Nurse,  a  Christian,  tells  of  Lincoln's  sorrow,  80; 

his  mind  made  up,  95;  prayer  for  Battle  of  Port 

Hudson,  114;  reads  mother's  Bible,  157 

Opinion  of  a  bosom  friend,  170;  of  his  pastor,  171 
Owen,  Robert  Dale,  visits  Lincoln,  126 
Owens,  Mary,  letter  to,  35 

Pardoning  President,  a,  128 


THE  CHRISTIAN  225 

Parents  Christians,  21 

Pastoral  call,  a,  118 

Patient  man,  a,  90 

Peace  conference,  members  call,  73 

Perfect  standard,  the,  62 

Peter,  may  fall  like,  69 

Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania,  speech  at,  72 

Pickett,  George  E.,  letter  to,  41 

Pisgah  and  Calvary,  136 

Plans,  God's  plans  his,  164 

Port  Hudson,  prays  for  battle  of,  115 

Porter,  Admiral,  visits  Richmond  with  Lincoln,  176 

Power,  control  of  a  higher,  100 

Pray,  asks  minister  to,  118;  Bishop  Simpson,  119; 

ministers  and  Christian  women,  120;  Quaker  lady, 

181 
Prayer,  before  inauguration,  73;  for  Battle  of  Bull 

Run,  91;  with  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  91;  "Let  this 

cup  pass,"   103;  for  battles  of  Gettysburg  and 

Vicksburg,  112;  for  Battle  of  Port  Hudson,  114; 

daily,  120;  in  answer  to,  165;  with  Quakeress,  175; 

President  and  Cabinet  in,  178;  last  intercessory, 

181 

Prayer  meeting,  attendant  at,  13;  national,  144 
Prayer,  recommends  thanksgiving  and,  132 
Praying  President,  a,  112 
Presbyterian    Church,    First,    41,    55;    New    York 

Avenue,  13,  167,  186 

Presbyterians,  reply  to,  109;  old  school,  135 
Problem  too  mighty,  60 
Proclamation,  Emancipation,  103 


226  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Proclamation  for    annual   thanksgiving,  first,  124; 

second,  158 
Proclamation   for   special    thanksgiving,   first,   86; 

second,  123;  third,  132;  fourth,  145 
Proclamation,  preliminary,  94 
Providence,  instrument  of,  126;  of  God,  121 
Public  profession,  intended  to  make,  168 

Quaker  lady,  address  to  President,  129;  letter  to, 

146;  praying  with  him,  175,  181 
Quakers,  reply  to,  97 

"Rather  be  assassinated,"  72 

Reed,  the  Rev.  Alexander,  letter  to,  106 

Reflection,  grateful  for,  159 

Reliance  upon  God,  70 

Religious  awakening,  43;  belief,  indications  of,  35; 
development,  190 

Reply  to  notification  committee,  64;  Evangelical 
Lutherans,  87;  Chicago  ministers,  94;  Quakers, 
97;  Presbyterians,  109;  Methodists,  133;  Bap- 
tists, 134;  old  school  Presbyterians,  135;  colored 
people,  157 

Resigned,  181 

Responsibility  to  God,  84 

Resurrection  of  human  freedom,  179 

Richmond,  visit  to,  176 

Righteousness,  hunger  and  thirst  after,  172 

Roberts,  the  Rev.  William  H.,  D.D.,  foreword,  13 

Robertson,  George,  letter  to,  60 

Ruler,  his  only,  75 


THE  CHRISTIAN  227 

Rusling,  General  James  F.,  introduction,  11;  re- 
lates conversation  about  prayer  for  Gettysburg, 
112 

Sabbath,  Lincoln  and  the,  99 

Sanitary  Commission,  calls  on  President,  129;  in 

answer  to  prayer,  165 

Scovel,  Colonel  James  F.,  relates  incident,  179 
Scoville,    Samuel,   Jr.,   tells   of   Lincoln's   visit   to 

Beecher,  93 

Servants,  prays  with  them,  120 
Sickles,  General  Daniel  E.,  Lincoln  visits,  112 
Simpson,  Bishop,  asked  to  pray,  119;  testimony  of, 

185 

Slavery,  first  sight  of,  30 
Smith,  the  Rev.  James,  D.\D.,  pastor  at  Springfield, 

43;  statement,  49;  letter  of,  52 
Sorrow,  his  great,  80 
Speed,  Joshua  F.,  letters  to,  39,  40;  tells  of  Lincoln 

reading  Bible,  148 
Speed,  Mary,  letter  to,  38 
Spiritualism,  29 
Standard,  the  perfect,  62 
Stepmother,  testimony  of,  25 
Steubenville,  Ohio,  speech  at,  71 
Stoddard,  William  O.,  testimony  of,  183 
Stuart,  George  H.,  prays,  164 
Sunderland,  the  Rev.  Byron,  D.D.,  letter  from,  101 
Superstition,  29 

Testament,  carries  a,  65;  reading  the,  156 
Testimony  of  friends,  183 


228  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Thanksgiving  Day,  originated  with  Lincoln,   124; 

first  annual,  124;  second  annual,  158 
Thanksgiving,  first  special,  86;  second,  123;  third, 

132;  fourth,  145 
Tolstoy's  estimate,  194 
Transfigured  life,  a,  190 
Transgression  and  atonement,  62 
Trenton,  New  Jersey,  speech  at,  72 
Triumphal  entry,  a  strange,  176 
Tyler,  the  Rev.  John,  letter  from,  120 

Voodoo  fortune  teller,  29 
Vicksburg,  praying  for,  114 
Victory,  praying  for,  114 

Vinton,  the  Rev.  Francis,  D.D.,  visits  White  House, 
81 

War,  accepted  the,  143 

Washington,  journey  to,  70;  first  night  in,  73 

Watterson,  Henry,  speech  of,  187 

Weed,  Thurlow,  letter  to,  175 

Well  done,  191 

Williamson,  Professor  Alexander,  quoted,  149 

Willie,  death  of,  80 

Whitney,  Henry  C.,  quoted,  103,  116,  170 

Willits,  the  Rev.  Mr.,  tells  of  incident,  168 

Wilson,  ex-Senator  James  F.,  relates  conversation, 

88 
Women,  God  bless  the,  131 

Youth,  27 


